The Star-Spangled Expanded Universe of "What Madness Is This?"

[Time Enough]

Sounds like a good idea, I'll maybe write about Wilde.

For added Madness have him;
Be a lover of Pime Minister Roger David Casement and the discovery of love letters between the two is what leads to Casement's sodomy investigation.

Wilde is friendly with Jim Larkin which becomes problematic after the Great War.

A feud with the Yeats family leads to all sorts of slander being flung between the two.

Wilde and James Connolly get into a fist fight over politics and Wilde making snide remarks about Connolly (that would probably be the meanest thing that Connolly would ever do).

Wilde becoming friends with the King much to the horror of his Imperial Government and Military.

So I've been thinking, doing a chapter about Wilde would be fun but I've already written recently about Ireland and I want to spread out what I write.

So I'm thinking maybe doing a Chapter about Maori's in New Zealand becoming like the Blacks in a America by the Australians.

I was mainly inspired by reading up about the history of the Maori's and finding out that relations between the Europeans and Maori's being quite friendly until about the 1850s when new settlers started encroaching on Maori land.

So I'm imagining that due to England's collapse as a world power the number of White Settlers remains quite small until the 1850s when the Australians start to stake there claim. The local white settlers appreciate the Maori so the Australians give them special status, there are a couple of skirmishes between some of the tribes and the Australian authorities but eventually things become settled (especially when Christian Maori clans deal with the rebellious clans). Later the Fascist Australian Government calls the Maori "Allies in the Great Christian Crusade against the Asiantic Aboriginals" and use them as shock troops. That's just my idea.

If anyone wants to write about the Wilde idea, you can go ahead and do it. You have my blessing.

 

[Zoidberg12]

The Thirty-Three Year History of the Republic of Cuba

July 5, 1826-January 19, 1859

Flag of the Republic of Cuba

Map of the provinces of the Republic of Cuba in 1850, published by the Charlotte Cartography Company in 1906
​

The island of Cuba had been a colony of Spain since the first Spanish settlement was established on the island in 1511 by the conquistador Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. This settlement was near the modern-day city of Baracoa in southern part of the island. For the next three-hundred and fifteen years, Cuba would continue to be a colony of the Spanish Empire, first as a part of the colony of New Spain, centered in modern-day Mexico, and then as a separate Spanish-administered colony as the Captaincy General of Cuba, established in 1607, ninety-six years after the first Spanish settlement was founded in Cuba. However, with the dawn of the 19th century, everything on the once backwater island was about to change, at first for the better and then for the worse.

Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
​

In the 1820s, the Spanish Empire, once the premier European and international super-power during the 16th and 17th centuries, was in a state of perpetual decline in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. In addition, the Spanish Empire was in severe debt to a number of other European powers, earning Spain the ire of its former wartime allies whom were now its creditors, with some debts stretching back a century. As a result, the first cracks began to appear in the vast and once great Spanish Empire. In February, 1826, these first cracks would appear and begin to open up in Cuba, one of the smaller and more minor colonies of the Spanish Empire. On February 7, 1826, the Pinar del Río Massacre occurred. For years, tensions had been increasing between Francisco Aguirre Saavedra, a wealthy landowner in Cuba and a close friend of Francisco Dionisio Vives, the La Platan-born Spanish Governor of Cuba, and the impoverished farmers whom worked on his large farm located just outside of the city of Vadadero in northern Cuba. These farmers, having long complained to their superiors about their long hours in the fields, poor working conditions, poor and cramped living spaces, small amounts of pay, constant brutalization, among other mistreatments, were beginning to lose to their patience and constantly tired of their bosses ignoring their pleas. On the afternoon of the aforementioned date, the farmers on this estate had finally had enough. An argument broke out between one of the farmers and a Spanish colonial soldier, part of a small garrison hired by Aguirre to guard the estate, with the argument ending in the soldier striking the farmer with his hand, for unknown reasons, which then led to a scuffle between the two. As a number of Spanish colonial soldiers tried to break up the fight, the other laborers interpreted this as some sort of action against them. Most of the farmers then ganged up on the heavily outnumbered soldiers using their own farm tools as makeshift weapons. The soldiers were armed only with sabers and pistols, and during the subsequent fight, numerous men on both sides died with the farmers winning the struggle. The soldier’s cache of weapons was then discovered by the farmers and they then armed themselves with numerous different rifles and pistols. The farmers then took over the plantation and estate; they were able to do so as Aguirre was away on business in Havana. A local brigade of Spanish soldiers then attempted to break up the rebellion, but in a savage firefight just outside of the estate, fifty Spanish soldiers were killed by the mob of impoverished farmers. The bodies of the Spanish soldiers killed that day were then buried in a mass grave on a road outside of the estate. A few of the soldiers escaped, made their way to Havana by horse and notified Governor Vives and Aguirre about what was going on outside of Pinar del Río. On February 9, 1826, Governor Vives responded with a brutal and quick reprisal, killing most of the farmers that took over the estate, the only survivors being those few that escaped, and other civilians in and around Pinar del Río whom were suspected of aiding the rebels, most of whom were innocent men murdered senselessly in what Emperor Napoleon I called “a needless massacre.”

Francisco Aguirre Saavedra​

Over the next few months, upon the spreading of the news of the Pinar del Río Massacre, other rebellions broke out on numerous plantations and farms throughout the island of Cuba, thus beginning the Cuban Rebellion, also known as the Cuban War of Independence. After years under Spain's thumb, the average people of Cuba had had enough, and many were inspired by enlightenment writings, introduced and smuggled to them in recent years through both Georgia and the nearby colonies of the French Empire and the Confederation of the Carolinas. On March, 12, 1826, in the city of Camagüey, after refusing for several days to suppress some local plantation revolts on the direct orders of Governor Francisco Dionisio Vives, a local army garrison, led by a Cuban-born 45 year-old captain Jose Amadeo Vázquez, rose up in rebellion against the Spanish colonial government on the direct orders of the aforementioned Captain. After three hours, Vázquez had managed to secure to the city of Camagüey for his rebellious garrison and arrested all of the loyalist officers and soldiers. After fighting against and defeated loyalist Spanish soldiers in the surrounding area and securing the area for his Cuban rebels, Vázquez decided to consolidate the area and his makeshift army into a new fighting force. After months of building up his army, and after numerous other successful revolts throughout Cuba, Captain Vázquez led his army on a campaign from Camagüey to Havana in an effort to capture the capital of Cuba and secure Cuban independence from Spain. Along the way, Vázquez's fought many battles and captured many cities, mostly importantly Ciego de Avila, Santa Clara and Colon, among others. On July 3, 1826, Vázquez had arrived on the outskirts of Havana, waiting for the right moment to strike. Two days later, on July 5, 1826, Governor Francisco Dionisio Vives, not wanting to see any more bloodshed on the land of his beloved island, personally surrendered the city of Havana to the rebel armies of Captain Vázquez. Vives, along with his friend Francisco Aguirre Saavedra, were then taken into captivity by Vázquez’s soldiers. While being held in a local prison and while the prison guards were asleep after a long night of drinking, late on the night of July 12, 1826, Vives committed suicide by hanging in his jail cell. After his guards awoke with a hangover and discovered his lifeless corpse, his body would be buried in a local cemetery late the next day. As for Aguirre, he would escape from a prison in Havana and attempt to make his way to the town of Trinidad in an attempt to escape to New Spain. On July 17, 1826, his attempt to escape would fail when after reaching Trinidad, by that point, unbeknownst to Aguirre, in the hands of rebels loyal to Vázquez, he was questioned by a rebel soldier in a Spanish uniform. After revealing his identity to a man he thought was loyal to the Spanish Crown, he was shot over twenty times in the chest by the soldier. He was sixty-two years of age. His body was then thrown in a ditch outside of town.​

Francisco Dionisio Vives (1755-July 12, 1826)
​

On July 6, 1826, while the World Congress was just going on in Vienna, the independence of the Republic of Cuba was officially declared by Captain Vázquez in the square in front of Havana Cathedral. Shortly afterwards, a flag of white over blue, with a red square and white star in the upper-left corner, designed personally by Captain Vázquez, was raised on a flagpole over the square and was officially adopted as and declared by Vázquez to be "the rightful and only flag of a free and independent Cuba." The remaining Spanish loyalists then fled to into the jungles and forests throughout the inland of Cuba so as to wage a cathartic guerrilla war against the new Cuban government. The Cuban Rebellion and the declaration of Cuban independence did not go unnoticed by foreign powers, particularly those on the North American continent. On July 8, 1826, after the constant exchange of diplomatic telegrams between Richmond and Raleigh, and with the joint approval of both Virginian President Henry Clay and Carolinian Chancellor Andrew Jackson, squadrons of ships from the Virginian Navy, led by Admiral Jesse Elliott, and the Carolinian Navy led by the Irish-born Admiral Johnston Blakeley, began a joint blockade of the Cuban capital of Havana in an effort to prevent Spanish troops from landing in and the around the capital city.

Jesse Elliott (July 14, 1782-December 10, 1845)

Johnston Blakeley (October, 1781-November 24, 1850)​

Who was Jose Amadeo Vázquez, the father of Cuban independence? Vázquez was born into a middle class criollo family on June 4, 1778 in Havana, Cuba. His father was a native of Havana, and his mother was a native of New Galicia in New Spain. In September, 1796, he was sent to study classicism and literature at the Complutense University of Madrid. As it turned out, Vázquez had arrived in Spain during a momentous time, as only a month before Spain had signed with the First French Republic the Second Treaty of San Ildefonso, thus solidifying an alliance with Spain and France against the British Empire. While Vázquez was attending university, he joined a local society of older intellectuals and then began to read numerous smuggled works of enlightenment literature banned by the Spanish monarchy and inquisition. These books would largely shape the worldview of the young Vázquez. After his return home to Cuba in the summer of 1800, Vázquez joined the infantry wing of the Spanish Army in Cuba. For the next twenty-five years, Vázquez would have a long and productive army career manning several local garrisons, all the while keeping his enlightenment-inspired views a deeply held secret.
​

Jose Amadeo Vázquez​

Anyways, back to 1826. After the R.V.S. James Madison exploded in Havana Harbor and the subsequent victory by the Virginian Navy against the Spanish Navy, led by Spanish admiral José de Bustamante y Guerra, in the naval Battle of Havana, which led to the death of Admiral Bustamante, Virginia and Carolina would officially be at war with the Spanish Empire and in support of the Cuban rebels in their war of independence. After that, the stage was set for the planning of an invasion of the Kingdom of Spain by the French Empire and her allies. With the outbreak of the Spanish-Coalition War on April 21, 1827, the rest was history. In Cuba, on December 24, Christmas Eve, 1826, with the approval of interim-President Vázquez thousands of Virginian soldiers, mostly infantrymen and marines from the Virginian Marine Corps (VMC), landed in a number of coastal cities in Cuba, such as Matanzas, Cardenas, Nuevitas, Puerto Padres, Baracoa, Santiago de Cuba, Nueva Gerona on the Isla de Pinos and most importantly, the Cuban capital of Havana. These landings were conducted with the approval of the interim-President in an effort to get the Virginians to help the poorly equipped and ragtag Cuban Army deal with the last remaining holdouts of Spanish loyalist soldiers, all of whom would eventually surrender by the end of 1827. In the aftermath of these landings, numerous Virginian infantrymen and marines began to patrol the streets of numerous Cuban cities and towns, and the new Cuban nation began to look like a colony of Virginia. This was no coincidence, as President Clay had formulated a plan with his Vice President Daniel Webster to gradually ease the new government and republic of Cuba from its full independence and to turn the nation into an occupied puppet state of the Republic of Virginia. With the exception of Bermuda, Virginia had no colonies or territories in the Caribbean and as a result, President Clay and Vice President Webster desired Virginian hegemony over the Republic of Cuba and its numerous plantations and numerous valuable goods and resources. This turn of events outraged Carolinian Chancellor Andrew Jackson, who saw these actions a stab in the back to the Carolinian nation, as well as the other Southron nations. The Carolinian and Virginian dispute over the status of Cuba would soon be the impetuous of the Virginian-Carolinian War. The rest is history and the war would lead to the death of Andrew Jackson, the rise of Virginia as a regional North American power, the decline of CoCaro and the rule of the Pontentate Zachary Taylor. Thus, the independence of this tiny nation and erstwhile minor colony of the Spanish Empire would lead to major ramifications for the history of the rest of North America, ramifications which would eventually lead to the end of Cuban sovereignty.​

José de Bustamante y Guerra​

As has already been stated, Cuba was originally intended to be a puppet state, protectorate and practical “colony” of the Republic of Virginia. However, with the outbreak of the Virginian-Carolinian War and the subsequent deployment of Virginian soldiers to occupy newly annexed lands from CoCaro, Virginia could not afford to militarily occupy the Republic of Cuba and make the nation a Virginian puppet state. As a result, much to the joy of President Vázquez and the other members of the Cuban government, Cuba continued to remain an independent nation and the master of its own destiny, not bound by the faraway whims and will of the Presidential Mansion and House of Burgesses in Richmond. All in all, President Vázquez and the people of Cuba were ecstatic with the state of these developments, as they did not want to trade a Spanish master for a Virginian master after only a few months of independence, and they did not want to see Cuba become a colony once again in all but name. In spite of how the Virginia did not became the master of Cuba, thanks in part to the important role that Virginia had played in the Cuban War of Independence, President Vázquez and his supporters decided to model the new government of Cuba on the government of Virginia, the House of Burgesses and the three branches of government. The three branches of the Cuban government would be the executive branch, the Presidency, the legislative branch, the Congress of Cuba and the judicial branch, the Supreme Court of Cuba. The institution of slavery, introduced by the Spanish Empire, also continued as it had for centuries, as the Cuban elite needed an easily exploitable and unpaid labor force to help extract the numerous valuable goods that Cuba made use of and sold in overseas markets, such as sugar, tobacco, wheat, livestock, alcohol, among other things. In regards to the presidency, Cuba had a combined head of state and head of government in the office of the president. There was also the office of the vice president, which was mostly a minor and advisory position in relation to the president.

In spite of the fact that Cuban government and people did not want to be puppets of Virginia, the Cuban government and people were still very thankful towards the nation of Virginia for its assistance in securing the independence of Cuba from the oppressive mother country of Spain. The Cuban government and people were even more thankful towards the Confederation of the Carolinas and their fallen Chancellor Andrew Jackson, as they rightfully viewed Jackson’s declaration of war against Virginia as the event that would lead to Virginia having to abandon its military and political dominion over the nation of Cuba. A number of streets in Havana and in other major Cuban cities were named after Virginian figures such as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. A number of streets were also named after Carolinian Chancellor Andrew Jackson. For his role in helping to divert the Virginians away from hegemony over Cuba, a statue of the fallen Chancellor and General Andrew Jackson was erected in Havana in 1835.

In 1827, Cuba was officially recognized as a sovereign nation by the France, Austria, the Netherlands, Georgia, Maryland, Ireland, Scotland and Denmark-Norway. Most of Europe would succeed in doing so by the beginning of 1830. In 1828, during the Virginian-Carolinian War, the largest slave rebellion in the history of North America led by Nat Turner occurred in Virginia. The slave rebellion in Virginia sent shock-waves throughout the island republic, as many wealthy landowners, allowed to keep their lands in exchange for loyalty to the new republic, feared that a similar slave revolt could occur with their own slaves. Many politicians in the Cuban Congress made illusions to the unsuccessful Haitian Revolution, in which most of the white population of the island was systematically massacred and murdered by the rebellious slaves and Haitian Revolutionaries, before the colonies gradual re-population after the eventual French victory, with assistance from the slaver nations of Georgia, CoCaro and Virginia, in 1806. Some politicians feared that something similar could happen in Cuba, although this was largely fear-mongering, as the white population of Cuba greatly outnumbered the black population of Cuba. As a result, numerous garrisons of the Cuban army were sent to guard numerous plantations. In addition, on the orders of the Cuban government, news of the Virginian Slave Rebellion was heavily censored throughout the Cuban press, so as to not raise the fears of the Cuban populace and slave-owning elite.​

An engraving of Haitian rebels murdering white settlers during the 1804 Haitian Massacre​

In 1829, things would be mostly quiet within Cuba. Throughout that year, a number of Carolinian refugees displaced by the Virginian-Carolinian War would arrive from the war-torn and/or annexed regions of CoCaro and would decide to settle within Cuba. After the end of the 1820s and at the beginning of the 1830s, the Republic of Cuba began to look to a new future of independence, self-rule, prosperity and peaceful isolation. The first decades of Cuban independence would see numerous developments that would shape the character of the young nation. In the realm of international relations, the Republic of Cuba began to make overtures and maintain a level of good relations with numerous nearby nations, such as the Republic of Georgia, whose land in Florida was located only a few miles away from Cuba, and even more importantly, the Franco-Spanish Empire, which owned the nearby colonies in Saint-Domingue/Santo Domingo and Puerto Rico. Over the next three decades, the nations of Georgia, France-Spain and Jamaica would be three of Cuba’s most important trading partners. In particular, Cuba would trade a lot with the French colonies of Saint-Domingue and Puerto Rico, as well as the Georgian puppet state of the Republic of Jamaica. Cuba also kept cordial relations with the nearby nations of Texas and Mexico, the latter of which was something of an international pariah, something which did not seem to matter to the Cuban government, and Cuba traded quite a lot with both nations as well. Under President Vázquez, European immigration was extensively encouraged during the 1830s, and this continued well into the 1840s and 1850s, all of this done in an effort to bring new, adventurous and hard-working people to Cuba, but also in an effort to marginalize the significant and potentially rebellious Afro-Cuban population, most of which were slaves. Immigration was the largest from nations such as Spain, France, Portugal, Ireland, the Confederation of the Rhine and the Italian states. In regards to the military, Cuba had a small, volunteer-only army, as they had no real external threats and were entirely surrounded by friendly nations.

In regards to internal political developments, the first elections in Cuban history took place in 1832, and President Jose Amadeo Vázquez won the elections in a landslide against his opponent Julian Cabrera, a businessman from Santiago de Cuba. In the elections of 1838, President Vázquez won the elections yet again, although he faced more opposition from his opponent, a former army captain named Vicente Alberto Fuentes. 1838 was also a very significant year for the North American Continent, as it was the year of the Louisiana Purchase, in which the Franco-Spanish Empire sold the colony of French Louisiana to the Republican Union and the Republic of Georgia, both nations of which divided the territory between the both of them. In the aftermath of the Louisiana Purchase of 1838, the government of Cuba became increasingly worried about potential expansionism on the part of the Republican Union, a nation which gained most of the former French Louisiana and now had access to the Pacific Ocean. As a result, in September, 1839, the budget for the Cuban military was increased by 20% and conscription was enacted in 1840, much to the anger of many middle and lower class citizens throughout Cuba, which led to a decrease in the popularity of President Vázquez and many calls for him to resign from office. Thus, in 1839, President Vázquez announced that he would not run for re-election in the upcoming election of 1842.​

Julian Cabrera (December 30, 1778-June 14, 1866)

Vicente Alberto Fuentes (July 3, 1784-August 14, 1858)​

One year later, on September 19, 1841, after many years as President of Cuba, President Vázquez stepped down after suffering a major heart attack. He was succeeded as President by his Vice President Horacio Acosta. The Acosta Presidency was largely a continuation of the Vázquez Presidency, but his presidency was also a re-structuring and solidifying go the government institutions of the Republic of Cuba. In 1842, under President Horacio Acosta, the Constitution of Cuba was amended so that presidents were officially allowed to run a maximum of for two four-year terms. This was done in an effort to make it harder for a president of Cuba turn into a dictator. In regards to the Cuban Military, under the supervision of President Acosta and in response to the Louisianian Purchase, Cuba received copious amounts of surplus weaponry from nearby nations such as Georgia and CoCaro and far-away European powers such as the Franco-Spanish Empire, Georgia, Prussia and the Netherlands. The Cuban Navy, at first only consisting of a few old Spanish ships, purchased a number of old ships from the Franco-Spanish Navy in 1846, as Acosta viewed the naval defense of Cuba "an important facet of the safety and well-being of the nation of Cuba." Unfortunately, not much else would be done to improve either the Cuban Army or the Cuban Navy after President Acosta left office. It was also during the Presidency of Horacio Acosta that Cuba, a hitherto mostly unknown land, had become a popular and exotic vacation destination for the upper classes and aristocrats from the Southron nations (Virginia, CoCaro, Georgia, Maryland) and Europe, especially, in regards to Europe, nations such as the Franco-Spanish Empire, Prussia/the Nordreich, the Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden and the Italian states. In regards to the aforementioned outgoing President and Founding Father of Cuba, Jose Amadeo Vázquez then retired to his apartment in Havana, wrote and published in memoirs in 1852, and died of natural causes at the age of seventy-two on October 16, 1853. His funeral in Havana on October 20, 1853 was the largest in Cuban history.​

Horacio Acosta (May 23, 1798-May 29, 1865)​

In the election of 1850, Horacio Acosta lost the election to National Conservative Party leader Hernando Del Rio, a former lawyer and congressman from Santiago de Cuba. The Del Rio presidency would mostly be "quiet and uneventful" in the words of one journalist from the Berliner Zeitung. In the elections of 1856, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, leader of the newly-formed left-wing Radical Party, was elected president of Cuba against the incumbent President Hernando del Rio, who was largely seen as a do nothing and ineffectual leader. On the other hand, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes was a charismatic and energetic speaker, and was seen as a person who could lead to Cuba into a new future. This new future seemed promising, as in 1857 President Céspedes began a extensive program of land reform throughout the island, thus allowing previously unused land to be made fertile and worked on for the betterment of the Cuban peasantry and the greater economy. Unfortunately, that future would not last long.
​

Hernando Del Rio (March 13, 1805-September 22, 1877)

Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (April 18, 1819-January 19, 1859), the last President of the Republic of Cuba.
​

With the Republican Union’s declaration of war on Georgia and the beginning of the Great American War on August 25, 1858, some politicians in the Cuban Congress thought that the Cuban government should appeal to the Franco-Spanish Empire to send soldiers into Cuba and to then have Cuba become a puppet state of the Empire, all in an effort to prevent Cuba from potentially being taken over by an expansionist Republican Union, which many feared would take over Georgia and then Cuba in an effort to have an avenue into the region of the Caribbean Sea. A few politicians even claimed that annexation into the Franco-Spanish Empire was the only way to prevent annexation into the Republican Union. Sadly, most members of the Cuban Congress would not listen to any of these fears. Sadly, these fears would be ignored by most within Cuba, both in the political and public spheres of life. Most Cubans, both politicians and public figures, did not think that the Union would bother with invading and annexing their small and mostly backwater nation. This would turn out to be a fatal miscalculation on the part of most within Cuba, who underestimated the Republican Union for the first and last time.

Sadly, as was just hinted at above, the sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba would come to an end soon after the advent of the Great American War. In an attempt to invade Georgia from another direction away from the western theater of war, on January 18, 1859, a huge overnight naval invasion of Cuba was undertaken. The day before, on January 17, 1859, Union Navy Group II, led by Admiral Charles Henry Davis, sailed out of Boston and swept into the Caribbean Sea as silently as possible. Soon after midnight on January 18, 1859, the Union Invasion of Cuba began when Union marines and infantrymen, led by General Henry Halleck, stormed the beaches outside of and inside the Cuban capital of Havana. The Union marines and infantrymen assaulted Havana within the day and cut all communications from the outside world off from the island. The Republic of Cuba, in spite of some half-hearted military buildup during the 1830s and 1840s, was so caught off guard by the Union naval invasion that almost half of the Cuban Army was captured or executed in their sleep while still in their barracks, while the small Cuban Navy was completely decimated by the much more advanced and powerful ships of Union Navy Group II. By the end of the day, the remaining and surviving garrisons in and around Havana surrendered to the Union armies. On the morning of January 19, 1859, as General Baldomerro Jiménez surrendered his sword to Union General Henry Halleck, and Vice President Jorge Saavedra surrendered the government of Cuba to the Union, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, the last President of the Republic of Cuba, committed suicide with a shot from his revolver to his head in his private office room in the Cuban Presidential Residence (the former governor’s mansion). After Union marines entered the Presidential Residence and discovered the corpse of President de Céspedes, his body was cremated by the Union soldiers and his ashes were scattered over the bay in Havana.​

Admiral Charles Henry Davis

General Henry Halleck

Baldomerro Jiménez. His mother was of partial Afro-Cuban Descent, thus making him the only Cuban Vice President of African descent.
​

During the aforementioned surrender ceremony, Gonzalo Rivera Bernal, Speaker of the Cuban Congress and the third in line for the Cuban Presidency, fled on foot with many other members of the Cuban central government from Havana to the village of Cabañas, Cuba, after which they all hastily boarded a large steamer ship and fled out to sea. The ship, named the Esperanza (Spanish for Hope), first docked in the city of San Juan, capital of French Puerto Rico, on January 20, 1859. The men than proceeded to formulate a plan on what to do next.
​

Gonzalo Rivera Bernal
​

Thus, the wartime Union occupation of Cuba began. Subsequent landings by Union Marines and Infantrymen took place in coastal cities all throughout Cuba, most prominently at Santiago de Cuba, Cardenas, La Isabella, Gibara, Trinidad, Playa Giron and Nueva Girona in the Isla de Pinas, renamed by the Union as the Island of Pines. While occupying the island and former sovereign nation of Cuba, the anti-Catholic Union Army was under strict orders to not desecrate or burn any Catholic institutions while the war was still ongoing. All in all, the Union wartime occupation of Cuba was surprisingly very polite and businesslike. However, any Cuban resistance fighters were promptly executed after capture with no quarter whatsoever given. On February 8, 1859, slavery was finally abolished in Cuba under the direct orders of Governor-General Henry Halleck. In spite of this aboliton of slavery, a new, dark chapter in the history of Cuba was about to begin.

Meanwhile, back in Puerto Rico, on January 21, 1859, Gonzalo Rivera Bernal hastily requested an audience with Fernando Cotoner y Chacón, the Spanish Governor of French Puerto Rico. After being given and having an audience, Cotoner y Chacón allowed the remnants of the Cuban government to stay in San Juan, and was boarded up in several local and fancy hotels. While Fernando Cotoner y Chacón exchanged some correspondence with Emperor Napoleon II, the emperor stated that he would allow the remnants of the Cuban government to stay within the Empire.​

Fernando Cotoner y Chacón​

After over a month of staying in San Juan and after much debate, on February 23, 1859, Gonzalo Rivera Bernal, the self-proclaimed interim President of Cuba in-exile, as well as the other remaining members of the Cuban government, boarded a private steamer ship to the city of Montevideo in the Banda Oriental region of La Plata in the Empire of Brazil and Rio de la Plata. For the next five decades, the Cuban government-in-exile would continue to remain in the city of Montevideo. Amongst the remnants of the Cuban government, their families and other Cuban exiles, there was hope that the nation of Cuba could rise again from the ashes.

List of Presidents of Cuba

Jose Amadeo Vázquez (Independent) (1826-1841)
Horacio Acosta (Independent) (1841-1850)
Hernando del Rio (National Conservative Party) (1850-1856)
Carlos Manuel de Céspedes (Radical Party) (1856-1859) †††

††† = Committed Suicide

 

[245]

can there be a chapter on Mexico exiles?

 

[Time Enough]

Great Chapter @Zoidberg12, nice to see Cuba trying and failing to establish itself as a country. I wonder if we're going to get anymore Cuba or if your going to develop other places instead.

 

[Whiteshore]

can there be a chapter on Mexico exiles?

I imagine they'd be like the Free Poles of AANW.

 

[Omar20]

As a Cuban, I loved the Chapter! Thank you very much, @Zoidberg12 !!! Couple things, though: wheat doesn't grow in Cuba and the Varadero peninsula wasn' settled in the XIXth century, except for a fishermen village called Las Morlas. Heck! The soil in that place is mostly sand and rock! You could replace the name with Pinar del Río or Artemisa, though, both cities are old and surrounded by tobacco plantations that used to employ free farmers.

 

[Zoidberg12]

As a Cuban, I loved the Chapter! Thank you very much, @Zoidberg12 !!! Couple things, though: wheat doesn't grow in Cuba and the Varadero peninsula wasn' settled in the XIXth century, except for a fishermen village called Las Morlas. Heck! The soil in that place is mostly sand and rock! You could replace the name with Pinar del Río or Artemisa, though, both cities are old and surrounded by tobacco plantations that used to employ free farmers.

Thanks for the feedback. I edited the post and replaced Varadero with Pinar del Río.

 

[Time Enough]

To quote Rowan and Martin: Sock it to me! I feel that Maori would definitely be considered Inferior though. They're basically an exact match for the Union's definition of "asiatic mongoloids."

Alright here you go, Part 1 of a Brief History of New Zealand;​

A Brief History of New Zealand from 1800-1850
​

During the start of 1800s New Zealand didn’t have much contact with the West with most of the individuals being the occasional English Sailor or Whalers. However in England an Anglican Missionary by the name Thomas Kendall decided to take it upon himself to convert the “heathen” souls of the Maori who lived there sailing to Syndey with his family in 1812 as Britain collapsed around them. By the time he had arrived in New Zealand in 1814 the organisation he worked for the “Anglican Missionary Society” had collapsed as many of the members had been killed in the defence of England leaving the few outposts across Empire. Thomas Kendall now was the representative for the Anglican Church in New Zealand; thankfully he had a good audience. Thomas Kendall would meet Chief Hongi Hika a Maori chief who was interested in Western culture and technology, in particular the Musket.

Thomas Kendall and Chief Hongi Hika, 1814
​

Thomas Kendall realising that he had an opportunity offered to help Chief Hongi Hika with a supply of weapons and in return Thomas would be able to convert many Maori’s to the Anglican Church. Hongi Hika took up the offer and Thomas went back to Syndey to secure firearms for the chief, whilst there he would meet a former soldier Arthur Hobbs who had decided to travel to Australia as Britain lost the Napoleonic War to see what jobs he could get. Hearing Kendall’s story Arthur offered to help supply Thomas with numerous firearms and even a couple of cannons as well as help Hongi Hika to train his troops in the art of Western Warfare. Kendall would return to Hongi Hika with Arthur Hobbs as well as bringing 200 muskets and cannon. Hongi Hika was pleased and with help from Arthur and Thomas he would conquer the majority of Northern New Zealand by 1820. The tribes in the South didn’t particularly like this decided to form what is now called the Maori Confederation as well as procuring their own firearms, in particular a double barrelled musket which many Westerners would eventually call the “Maori Musket”.

Arthur Hobbs, 1820

Tribe Members perfrom the Haka with Muskets and Traditional Weapons, 1820​

From 1820 to 1830 there would be a stalemate with the newly created Northern Maori Kingdom and the Southern Maori Confederation spending most of their time securing their borders, dealing with non-cooperative tribes and modernising their country. Meanwhile more Western travellers would start coming to New Zealand for the opportunities it presented, in particular a large number of disenfranchised Englishmen who would set up base across the nation. Many would find jobs in the newly created city of Kendall in the centre of the nation, the land having been given to Kendall by Hongi Hika in thanks for help.

Kendall before construction, 1821
​

The Stalemate would end when in 1830, Arthur Hobbs annoyed with the Maori Confederation decided to invade the South with help from a mercenary force of Maori’s and White Settlers to establish his own Kingdom. Arthur would make great progress until his forces were ambushed in the Battle of Wairau Valley forcing him to beat a retreat to the newly established coastal city of Blenheim in which he would dig in. Arthur would ask for help from Hongi Hika who declined leading to Arthur wondering what to do, thankfully for him help would come from the Maori Confederation who decided upon a truce and to allow him to keep his small area of land and Blenheim, in return for him marrying one of the Confederation’s Chief’s in particular a tribal leader by the name of Rangi Kuīni Wikitōria Topeora.

Hobb's Force Advance, 1830
​

Arthur accepted becoming the head of Blenheim County of New Zealand, in return the Confederation managed to gain some breathing space from the forces of Hongi Hika, they didn’t have to worry long though since Hongi Hika would die in 1838 causing the Northern Kingdom to collapse into warring tribes without a clear ruler. Hobbs would use the opportunity to take Kendall, gain land in the North and grab himself another Maori wife which was starting to become a thing for many of the Westerners in New Zealand leading to a number of mixed raced offspring being born throughout the 1830s and 40s. As 1842 and England collapsed into anarchy and revolt a large number of Anglican English settlers would sail to New Zealand and try and establish a Royalist colony there, that didn’t turn out to well with a number of the settlers getting massacred by Maori forces. Eventually the remaining military forces of King Ernst of Hanover lead by Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy would arrive to protect the settlers. A treaty would be signed in 1844 between Robert Fitzroy, Chief Te Rauparaha of the Maori Confederation and Arthur Hobbs allowing for the establishment of the Imperial Colony of New Zealand with most of the English settlers being given land in the North where numerous tribes were still battling each other.

Vice Admiral Robert FitzRoy, 1844

Signing of the Kendall Treaty, 1844
​

As the Australian Civil War raged New Zealand was rather quiet with much cooperation between the English Settlers and the Confederated Maori’s with Robert FitzRoy establishing the New Zealand Parliament in which sat English, Maori and European New Zealanders to help further cooperation and to help defeat any remaining rebellious tribes. However as the Commonwealth of Australia won the war, eyes eventually turned towards the New Zealand which had large amount of resources for the Commonwealth to use. However Arthur Hobbs would tell the Commonwealth that New Zealand would happily join the Commonwealth...so long as they kept the same Government in charge and dealt with problems themselves. The Australians didn’t particularly like that idea especially since the leader of parliament was Robert FitzRoy a noted anti-Republican and also that the Maori’s were allowed to be part of the Parliament.

Blenheim, 1847

Australian Commonwealth Soldiers, 1847
​

Arthur simply told them that if they didn’t accept those offers they go into talks with either the Dutch or the Europans instead. The Australians begrudgingly accepted the terms, especially since it couldn’t go into a protracted war with New Zealand at that moment in time. In 1847 New Zealand would become a member of the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand and 1848 the New Zealand Parliament would hold its first election with Arthur and his Cooperation party winning much to the Australian’s annoyance. Now New Zealand had become an awkward member of the Commonwealth things weren’t going to be easy which makes sense since it was filled with people who didn’t particularly like Australia. Fortunately for them in 1850 a priest from America by the name of Noah Hawks would appear and spread the word of Burr to the people of New Zealand...unfortunately for them the people that listened and appreciated it were Maoris.

AFC Missionary Noah Hawks, 1850

New Zealand AFC Service, 1850​

 

[Whiteshore]

Fortunately for them in 1850 a priest from America by the name of Noah Hawks would appear and spread the word of Burr to the people of New Zealand...unfortunately for them the people that listened and appreciated it were Maoris.

​

I would love to see the mental gymnastics the RU will use to justify this.

 

[Time Enough]

I would love to see the mental gymnastics the RU will use to justify this.

Yep, pretty much the next part will be how Australia and the RU try and justify and where to place the Maori's (also part of the reasoning will be the Australians realising how long it would take to exterminate and round up the Maori). Also Noah isn't a normal AFC priest by any means.

Also it doesn't help that there's a load of white guys marrying Maori women and having mixed raced children, or that the vast majority of the White New Zealand population is part of the Anglican Church and aren't likely to change.

 

[Ameroboto]

I would love to see the mental gymnastics the RU will use to justify this.

Have it be that the Maori are a lost Jewish tribe, just like the Japanese, and need the Word of God in order to get rid of their Inferior customs.

 

[245]

Yep, pretty much the next part will be how Australia and the RU try and justify and where to place the Maori's (also part of the reasoning will be the Australians realising how long it would take to exterminate and round up the Maori). Also Noah isn't a normal AFC priest by any means.

Also it doesn't help that there's a load of white guys marrying Maori women and having mixed raced children, or that the vast majority of the White New Zealand population is part of the Anglican Church and aren't likely to change.

new Zealand is about to get ugly, also dint Napoleon said that the Maori be considered inferior? also, will you do a chapter on Mexico and the surviving Mexicans and Hispaniola?

 

[Time Enough]

Have it be that the Maori are a lost Jewish tribe, just like the Japanese, and need the Word of God in order to get rid of their Inferior customs.

new Zealand is about to get ugly, also dint Napoleon said that the Maori be considered inferior? also, will you do a chapter on Mexico and the surviving Mexicans and Hispaniola?

Just a quick spoiler is that Noah believes the Maori's are a lost Jewish Tribe...but the Australians don't believe it, still believing that the Maori are inferior and the Republicans don't care that much about it. The main problem is that the European New Zealanders have a good relationship with Maori's and they aren't particular fans of Australia.

The next chapter could essentially be described as "Australia tries to find a way to not go to a costly War with New Zealand and exterminate the Maori and they find that answer with Eugenics".

Also consider it a maybe for the surviving Mexicans chapter, I'm in the middle of writing my dissertation so it depends.

 

[Whiteshore]

surviving Mexicans chapter

México no está perdido (Mexico is not Lost) for a title, to add to the parallels to the "Free Poles" of AANW (the last sign that a country which had been nearly destroyed by a totalitarian and genocidal regime once existed as a thriving and modern nation)?

 

[Time Enough]

A Brief History of New Zealand from 1850-1880​

As New Zealand entered the second half of the 19th Century another Christian Missionary from a land of English Speakers would arrive to spread the word of God, but alongside that this Missionary would spread the word of Burr as well. Born in 1820 in New Jersey Noah Hawks was a rather intellectual member of the AFC having conducted numerous studies on the prophecies of Burr as well as ideas of Marxism whilst studying at University in 1842 with his book Burr and the Pinnacle Man being published in 1845 which offered theories on how a pinnacle man is created as well as trying to create a classification system for inferiors and pinnacle men.Whilst a popular book with learned members of the public it didn’t sell well, so Noah decided to train to become a missionary instead eventually being sent to the Commonwealth of Australia in 1848 where in the aftermath of the Civil War the AFC was setting up new churches and preaching to new members. However in 1849 Noah would be called to Sydney and be prepared for a special mission by head of the Australian branch of the AFC Peter Parker in which Noah would be sent to New Zealand in which his job was to convert “The Anglicans there to the one true bible”. In 1850 Noah would arrive in Kendall and start his work setting up the New Zealand branch of the AFC.

Peter Parker, 1850​

The problem was that Noah was rather antagonistic to the New Zealand Anglican Church and to the residents of Kendall often telling them that those who didn’t convert to the true calling of the AFC would be struck by fire and brimstone. Eventually the residents of Kendall had enough after he told them that the Anglican Church was the cause of the English Revolution, in response a mob beat him up and burned down his church. The next day Noah would leave Kendall to try and find a more receptive group up North. He would find that group in the tribe of Ngāti Toa lead by Te Rauparaha who ambushed Noah as he was riding. Upon seeing them Noah bowed to them calling “One of the many lost Jewish Tribes” and asked to see their leader.

Te Rauparaha, 1850

Tāmihana Te Rauparaha, 1850​

Noah would explain the words of Burr to Te Rauparaha and his son a Christian scholar called Tāmihana Te Rauparaha, after some conferring it was decided that Noah would be allowed to live and spread the word of Burr to the people of the Ngāti Toa as long as he could secure for them weaponry like rifles. Noah accepted and started to form a new church in the North of New Zealand sending reports back to his superiors in Sydney which worried them. When Te Rauparaha died in 1855 and was replaced by Tāmihana Te Rauparaha (who was by this point an AFC fanatic) Noah started to preach for a holy war to wipe out the other tribes in the North. Upon hearing about this Noah was called back to Sydney to explain himself. Bringing Tāmihana Te Rauparaha with him Noah went on a two hour long speech about how he believed members of the Ngāti Toa were descendents of a Lost Jewish Tribe. In response Peter Paker told Noah that;

“Whilst your reasoning is sound the appearance of the Ngāti Toa seem to indicated otherwise, whilst I can believe that at some point this tribe may have been pinnacle men multiple years of breeding with inferiors have created an odd mulatto race called the Maoris. Until such a time that we can weed out the inferiority within, I believe that members of the American Fundamentalist Church shouldn’t interact with any Maori tribe”

Noah ignored it and went back to New Zealand with Tāmihana Te Rauparaha leading to Noah’s excommunication from the AFC in 1856, Noah didn’t care helping Tāmihana Te Rauparaha lead a holy war against the other “inferior” Maori tribes in the North throughout the remainder of the 1850s and the early 1860s. Whilst this had been happening the Imperial Dutch East India Company had established a trading outpost called New Leiden in the Northlands of New Zealand lead by Prussian Adventurer and former soldier Gustavus von Tempsky who managed to create a friendly relationship with Prime Minister Arthur Hobbs and Northland tribal leader Hōne Heke who needed help dealing with the fundamentalist Ngāti Toa.

Hōne Heke & wife Hariata, 1855

Gustavus von Tempsky, 1860
​

Gustavus von Tempsky and the Dutch decided to help and selling Hōne Heke firearms and training his tribe in how to use them. As Noah and Tāmihana realised that Hōne Heke was securing more firepower they decided to do the same buying rifles and cannons as well as paying an Australian Mercenary group lead by Major Greg Gibbons to help the Ngāti Toa. This would cause tension between Australia and New Zealand in 1864 when Major Greg Gibbons and a couple of his men were captured by Hōne Heke who killed and ate them. Upon hearing about this the Australians furious and the Australian Government demanded that the still reigning Prime Minister Arthur Hobbs would allow Australian army onto New Zealand soil to deal with Hōne Heke. Arthur allowed the force of 400 men lead by Colonel Peter Lalor onto New Zealand soil and offered them support from members of the New Zealand Constabulary and Maori trackers to help catch Hōne Heke. Peter Lalor told Arthur that the Australian army didn’t require help from inferiors and inferior lovers and went off to the Northlands to capture Hōne Heke. His force would return two years later in 1866 missing half of its men, Peter Lalor now missing an arm and no closer to capturing Hōne Heke than they were before.

Major Greg Gibbons, 1864

Colonel Peter Lalor, 1868

Australian Forces under fire, 1867​

It was an embarrassment to the Australian Army and Government who allowed the New Zealand Constabulary to capture Hōne Heke, it would take them six months to capture Hōne Heke who would be executed by firing squad in 1868 in Sydney after a short trial by Australian authorities. Meanwhile the Noah and the Ngāti Toa would be silently dealt with by 1870 with Tāmihana becoming the representative briefly for the Ngāti Toa in the New Zealand Parliament. With New Zealand doing okay and having shown itself in front of the Australians its long time Prime Minister Arthur Hobbs would die in office in 1871. After a brief election period Julius Vogel from the Liberal Party would be voted in despite Australian attempts to get their own man in office, which would be found out in 1873. In response members of the Anti-Australian League an organisation against Australian control in New Zealand (mainly made up of former English citizens) staged a number of attacks against Australian symbols including the Australian trading post New Eureka lead by charismatic leader Oswald Kelly. The Australians still licking their wounds from the Hōne Heke allowed Julius Vogel to send the New Zealand Constabulary and recently formed New Zealand Militia after Kelly and his men in return for “his head on a silver platter”. From 1873 to 1876 the Militia would chase Kelly and his men across New Zealand before finally ambushing them at Te Awamutu in which the Militia had to use a recently acquired Coffee Grinder to mow down Kelly’s men who were all wearing homemade bullet proof armour.

Prime Minister Julius Vogel, 1872​

New Zealand Constabulary fight Oswald Kelly, 1876

New Zealand Milita, 1876​

Kelly would be shot in the leg and captured and be tried by New Zealand Government for treason before being hung. Vogel had Kelly’s head cut off and sent on a silver platter to the then Australian Protector of the Relm Peter Lalor (much to his horror and Julius dark delight). As New Zealand managed to secure its place in the world as an equal if awkward partner to Australia events were happening elsewhere which would lead to the arrival of Custer and the rise of strong men around the world. New Zealand too would get its strong man to, the biracial son of Arthur Hobbs and Rangi Kuīni Wikitōria Topeora and avid reader of Noah Hawks, Marx and Burr Alexander Hobbs known to the Maori as Timi Kara would appear...and he believed he had found a way to purify the Maori people and make them pinnacle men. But to do that he would have to establish power.

Alexander Hobbs or Timi Kara, 1880​

 

[Time Enough]

México no está perdido (Mexico is not Lost) for a title, to add to the parallels to the "Free Poles" of AANW (the last sign that a country which had been nearly destroyed by a totalitarian and genocidal regime once existed as a thriving and modern nation)?

That would be a good chapter title, put a Exiled Mexicans chapter as up for consideration after I've finished the history of New Zealand which I've split into 3 chapters instead of my original plan for 2 chapters.

The next chapter will be 1880-1910 covering the raise of Alexander Hobbs and the raise of the "Pinnacle Maori Movement" as they call themselves (the Aussies don't think there Pinnacle Men but they aren't inferiors anymore). It's going to be bleak and a bit bloody.

 

[Zoidberg12]

I admit that this came out a bit longer that I wanted it to, but I couldn't help myself.

So without further ado, heres a love letter to a country that got some more attention and love itself in this version of the Madnessverse and a country that I hope to visit soon. Enjoy!​

A History of the Republic of Norway
Part One: Demokrati

​

The nation of Norway has a long and storied history. However, the history of the modern nation of Norway did not begin until the Revolutions of 1844, one of which was the Norwegian Revolution, also known as the Norwegian War of Independence, a war which led to and coincided with the decline of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, a kingdom and personal-union which had existed for over four hundred years from 1523 to 1533 and again since 1537. Starting after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 and after years of the spread of revolutionary fervor and nationalism throughout Europe, a new movement of Norwegian nationalism and a Norwegian national consensus began to take hold within Norway, then a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway. After almost three decades, the movement had continued to grow within intellectual and public circles within Norway, and at the start of 1844, the movement was finally starting to head to a climax.

On January 24, 1844, the Danish government of King Christian VIII and Prime Minister Poul Christian Stemann imposed a new series of heavy-handed taxes on the people of Norway, but not on the people of Denmark or any other territory of the kingdom. Six days later, on January 30, 1844, the Kingdom of Denmark passed laws that made military conscription for all males between the ages of 17-40 years of age mandatory within Norway, as it had been within Denmark since 1840. As a part of this law, at least one year of service in the colony of the Danish Gold Coast in West Africa was also mandatory. In recent years, a number of revolts in the Danish Gold Coast were causing problems and were forcing the Danish government to expend more money and men on the far-away and troublesome colony. Both of these laws, passed in such quick succession, caused outrage amongst the people of Norway. On February 13, 1844, numerous Norwegian citizens began protesting the new heavy-handed taxes and military conscription laws. The Norwegian people had had enough and decided to make their anger known to the government in Copenhagen.​

King Christian VIII

Prime Minister Poul Christian Stemann
​

After weeks of protests, on February 27, 1844, a large group of Norwegian intellectuals, industrialists, businessmen, artists, clergymen and even common people signed a petition to the Danish government in Copenhagen and demanded that a new Norwegian constitution be written up, giving Norway more autonomy as its own constituent kingdom with its own parliament within the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, including their own Prime Minister, to levy their own taxes, to make their own local laws, to end conscription, among other such demands. When the petition reached the government, these demands incensed King Christian VIII, who reigned with the absolute power that the Danish-Norwegian monarchs had ruled with for over four-hundred years. Thus, Christian VII was determined not to budge an inch and to keep his authority over Norway respected. Over the next few months, things remained tense within Norway between the Norwegian people and the Danish authorities.

On the morning of May 17, 1844, months after the refusal of the Danish government to recognize a Norwegian constitution, a group of Norwegian politicians, military officials, intellectuals, industrialists, businessmen, artists and clergymen, all in favor of either Norwegian autonomy within Denmark or full Norwegian independence from Denmark, meet in secret in a mansion on the outskirts of the town of Kongsberg. The two main leaders of the Constituent Assembly were Espen Kjell Halvorsen, the mayor of Kongsberg, and Thorlief Strand, a popular army general and veteran of the Gold Coast conflicts, both of whom were two of the most vocal proponents of reform within Norway. After hours of debate, it was decided that Norway would have to declare full independence from the Kingdom of Denmark and become an independent republic with its own constitution. Some hours later, the Constitution of the Republic of Norway was officially adopted, with the constitution establishing Norway as a republic with a semi-presidential system and a unicameral parliament and legislature known as the Storting. General Thorlief Strand was proclaimed the interim President of the Republic of Norway, while the office of Prime Minister was left vacant until election could be held int he future. Thus, in Norway the day of May 17th would become Norwegian Constitution Day or Norwegian Independence Day.​

The Proclamation of the Norwegian Parliament, May 17, 1844

Espen Kjell Halvorsen (August 4, 1799-April 30, 1868)

Thorlief Strand (February 5, 1806-October 24, 1880)
​

In the aftermath of the adoption of the Norwegian Constitution and the declaration of the Republic of Norway, King Christian VIII rallied the armies of Denmark, forged them into an expeditionary force under General Frederik Læssøe and then dispatched them across the Skagerrak to Norway. Upon their arrival, they were to arrest the leaders of the protests and the Constituent Assembly for treason and to burn all copies of the so-called Norwegian Constitution. Unsurprisingly, the Norwegian people weren’t going to allow the Danish Army to suppress their political desires, and armed confrontation soon turned into open street battles between Norwegian protesters and the Danish Army in the large cities of Norway. On May 24, 1844, only a week after the meeting of the Constituent Assembly, the Norwegian War of Independence began. The people of Norway soon began following Thorlief Strand, the proclaimed provisional president of Norway, and he began to be held up by the Norwegian people as their leader and became the public face of the Norwegian Rebellion.

Frederik Læssøe, leader of the Danish armies in Norway​

President and General Strand and the provisional government of the Republic of Norway soon began receiving secret funding from the Kingdom of Sweden under King Oscar I. The Scandinavian nations of Sweden and Denmark had a long, shared history with a long, heated and storied rivalry, with over ten wars between the two nations between 1521 and 1789, with the two nations having been at war with each other at almost every chance between 1448 and 1789. As a result, the Swedish government decided to fund the Norwegian rebellion in an effort to weaken their longtime rival of Denmark and to attempt to bring about an end to Danish power in Scandinavia once and for all. With this new flow of cash coming in from Sweden, the Norwegian provisional government purchased new weapons and supplies from the Commonwealth of England, as well as other nearby nations such as Scotland and Prussia. In August, 1844, Strand called for international volunteers to help, in his words, “combat the cancer of absolute monarchy and bring about a Norwegian Republic.” As a result, thousands of English and American volunteer veterans of the recent English Revolution (sometimes called the Second English Revolution, with the English Civil War of the 17th century being the First English Revolution) crossed the North Sea, landed in Norway to joined Strand's forces. Reverend Milo Miles led the American Fundamentalist Brigades, while General Thomas Foxbridge led the "Cromwellite Volunteer Republican Army." Other volunteer forces came from other Protestant nations in Europe, such as Prussia, the Netherlands, Finland, the North American Southron nations and the Protestant regions of the Rhineland and Switzerland. Some volunteer forces even came from non-majority Protestant nations such as the Franco-Spanish Empire, Portugal, the Italian states, the Austrian Empire and the Russian Empire, among others, with the volunteers simply being sympathizers to the cause of Norwegian Independence, Liberalism and Republicanism.

King Oscar I of Sweden​

Thomas Foxbridge (June 5, 1812-September 29, 1870), leader of the "Cromwellite Volunteer Republican Army"​

In December, 1844, the Norwegian Army, with the help of the newly-established International Volunteer Brigades (Internasjonale frivillige brigader) launched the Winter Offensive (Vinterstødende), kicking the Danish armies out of the port cities of Bergen and Haugesund, thus raising the morale of the Norwegian armies and people. On March 20, 1845, after a lull in fighting during the harsh Norwegian winter, the Siege of Trondheim began. To the south, with much or the Danish forces in different parts of southwestern Norway isolated, a new two-pronged offensive began to secure the rest of the Norway for the revolutionaries. On March 29, 1845, the Battle of Molde began, with the city surrendering on April 9, 1845. On March 31, 1845, the Battle of Stavanger began, with the city surrendering on April 14, 1845. After that, more cities fell; Alesund fell on April 20, and then Floro fell on April 24. After an almost two month-long siege, Trondheim fell to the Norwegian rebels on April 28, 1845. Throughout May, 1845, most of the Danish held-towns and garrisons in the sparsely populated regions of northern Norway began to gradually fall to the Norwegian rebel armies. As revolutionary fervor swept Norway, Denmark was starting to feel the burden of fighting both in Norway and in the Gold Coast against a number of rebellious African tribes, such as the Ashanti, Akan, Ga, Gonja and Ga-Adangbe. Strand hoped that by fighting a war of attrition against Denmark, the Danish Armies would finally pull out of Norway and focus on trying to stabilize their colony of the Gold Coast. On May 14, 1845, after months of the Danish fighting the Norwegian rebels, the Republic of Iceland was declared independent from the Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland then declared independence from the Kingdom of Denmark on June 6, 1845. On June 6, 1845, with the mounting causalities of Danish soldiers, with numerous Danish soldiers in Norwegian towns and forts under siege and with the prospect of bankruptcy facing the Danish treasury and government, Christian VIII decided to back down and recalled the Danish armies under General Frederik Læssøe back from Norway to Denmark. By the end of the month, all of the Danish soldiers had either retreated from Norway or surrendered to the Norwegian rebels. On July 1, 1845, the Kingdom of Denmark officially recognized the independence of Norway, as well as Iceland and Greenland. As a result, the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway was officially disbanded after 408 years of continual existence, and the Kingdom of Denmark was established in its place. On July 9, 1845, the Republic of Norway was diplomatically recognized by the Kingdom of Sweden. On July 12, 1845, the Republic of Norway was diplomatically recognized by the Franco-Spanish Empire. The Republic of Norway was then diplomatically recognized by Prussia, England, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Russian Empire.

In the first years of Norwegian independence, partly under the presidency of Thorlief Strand from 1844 to 1852, Norway began to establish diplomatic relations with a number of other nations. Norway had very good relations with its immediate neighbor, the Kingdom of Sweden, as it was a fellow Scandinavian neighbor with a long and shared history and a major supporter of the Norwegian Revolution. Norway also had very good relations with the other Protestant nations in Europe, such as Prussia/the Nordreich, the Netherlands, England, Scotland and Wales. Norway also had very good relations with the Franco-Spanish Empire and her client states, as the Franco-Spanish Empire was one of the first nations to recognize the independence of Norway. Norway also had good relations with Iceland and Greenland. For obvious reasons, Norway had cold relations (no pun intended) with its former master of Denmark. However, as the decades progressed, relations between the two Scandinavian and Protestant nations would gradually improve. Across the Atlantic, the Republic of Norway had somewhat good relations with the Republican Union. However, they were still somewhat cold relations, as the Norwegian government and the vast majority of the Norwegian people viewed the American Fundamentalist Christian Church, a religion which had a lot of influence over the Union government and culture, as a bizarre, unchristian and potentially dangerous cult. As a result, the Republic of Norway decided to have cordial relations with the Republican Union, but at the same time, decided to keep the Republican Union at a metaphorical arm’s length. In regards to the rest of the new world, Norway also had somewhat better relations with the Southron nations of Virginia, Maryland, CoCaro and Georgia, as well as the nations of Latin America.

The first elections in Norwegian history were held in 1848, and in the elections President Strand won in a massive landslide against his old friend and friendly rival Espen Kjell Halvorsen. In one of his last major acts as President and Founding Father (Grunnleggeren, an unofficial honorary title) of the Republic of Norway, President Strand adopted an official national anthem for the Republic of Norway. In 1850, on the directive of President Strand, the Norwegian patriotic song Norges Skaal (Norway’s Toast), written in 1771 by the Norwegian poet, dramatist, political and Bishop in Bergen Johan Nordahl Brun (1745-1816) and a song that was immensely popular amongst the Norwegian rebels, was officially adopted as the national of anthem of Norway, and was to be sung at public events, diplomatic events and at commemorations on Norwegian Independence Day, among other such functions. The next elections were held four years later in 1852. Frederik Due, a former Norwegian military officer, veteran of the Gold Coast Campaigns in West Africa and the Norwegian War of Independence, won the election for the newly-established Liberal Party (Liberale partiet). Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the Liberal Party continued to be the dominant party within the realm of Norwegian politics, and the party managed to uphold the Liberal, Republican and Secular values of the republic. Under President Due, a number of land reform bills were passed in the Norwegian Storting and then implemented throughout the rural regions of Norway. All of this changed with the election of 1864, which saw the defeat of President Due and the election of Georg Sibbern, the leader of the Norwegian Conservative Party (Konservative partiet), to the Presidency of Norway. The Sibbern presidency lasted for eight years and saw the passing of new tariffs in an effort to improve the Norwegian economy and the increasing of the budgets for the Norwegian army and navy. It was also during his presidency that military advisers and officers were invited from numerous foreign nations, such as Prussia, Sweden, Russia, France-Spain and Austria, to help improve the fighting capability and tactics of Norwegian Army and Navy. In the election of 1872, the Liberal Party returned to power under the rule of President Ole Jørgensen Richter, who defeated President Sibbern in the election, as most Norwegians had begun to tire of eight years of conservative leadership. One of the first acts of Richter's presidency was to remove most of the Sibbern-era tariffs. However, Richter continued to keep the same amount of funding for the Norwegian Army and Navy that President Sibbern had first set up.

Frederik Due

Georg Sibbern

Ole Jørgensen Richter​

By the 1870s and 1880s, in spite of being a minor power on both the European and World stages, the Republic of Norway was one of the great success stories amongst the European nations. During the last decades of the 19th century, Norway gained a reputation as being one of the most liberal and progressive nations on the continent of Europe. Norway had a republican and enlightenment-inspired constitution which enshrined numerous liberal and enlightenment values such freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, rights for all citizens regardless of race, nationality, gender or religion, separation of church and state, among others.

In the decades after its independence, Norway experienced a new Norwegian Cultural Renaissance (Norsk kulturell gjenfødelse). This was a new birth of Norwegian culture in the form of literature, art and music, much of which was done in the style of Norwegian romantic nationalism (Norsk Nasjonalromantikken), a style which emphasized a Norwegian aesthetic, in the aftermath of the independence of Norway. For centuries, during the personal-union between Denmark and Norway, with Denmark as the major partner of the union, Norway became a cultural backwater, with a large amount of brain drain leaving Norway for Denmark and a distinctive Norwegian culture being found only amongst the farmers and peasants in the rural regions of Norway. After the independence of Norway, the creation and maintaining of a new and distinct Norwegian cultural identity became a major priority for the Norwegian government and cultural society. As a result, the governments of numerous Norwegian presidents, along with numerous Norwegian cultural institutions in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Trondheim, among other cities, began promoting the arts within Norway and collecting artifacts and cultural practices from the rural regions of Norway. This was all in an effort to preserve a distinct, identifiable Norwegian identity and culture, not just for Norwegians themselves but for the rest of the world as well. This resulted in the creation of new works of art, literature, theater and music within Norway.

Some off the main figures of the Norwegian Cultural Renaissance were writers, be they novelists, poets or playwrights, such as Henrik Ibsen, called by the Virginian-born author Samuel Clemens as "the Norwegian Shakespeare", Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Jonas Lie, Johan Sebastian Welhaven, Amalie Skram and Henrik Wergeland, linguists such as Ivar Aasen, artists such as Adolph Tidemand, Hans Gude, J.C. Dahl and August Cappelen, and composers such as Edvard Greig, the violinist and composer Ole Bull and the composer, conductor and violinist Johan Halvorsen, who made a well-publicized debut playing violin at a theater in Oslo at the age of twenty-one in 1885. In particular, Edvard Greig produced a number of pieces of classical music that became world famous, such as "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (I Dovregubbens hall) and "Morning Mood" (Morgenstemning), both written for the 1867 play Peer Gynt by the aforementioned Henrik Ibsen. The music of Greig would also become popular within the Republican Union, where it was held up as an example of "fine, Protestant-inspired music", as stated as such by Union Secretary of Education Thomas Edison. In edition the creation of new arts, the old and traditional arts of Norway, be they folktales or folktunes, were also collected and preserved by numerous Norwegian intellectuals, writers, musicians and artists. It was also during this period that new Norwegian patriotic songs were written and composed. One of the most popular of these was "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" (Yes, we love this country), written in 1862 by the aforementioned Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, with music by a young Norwegian composer named Rikard Nordraak. Another one of these songs was "Gud signe vårt dyre fedreland" (God bless our precious fatherland), written in 1891 by the professor, theologian, church councilor, hymn writer and Liberal Party politician and unsuccessful 1880 presidential-candidate Elias Blix. In 1894, his name would be given to the Blix Prize, a prize presented by the Norwegian Literacy Society for the best writer and the best novel written and published within Norway.
​

Brudeferden I Hardanger (Bridal party in Hardanger), Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand, 1848

A Painting by Hans Gude, 1847

Fra Vossevangen, Hans Gude, 1860​

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The 1870s and 1880s saw numerous new political developments within the Republic of Norway, such as the establishment of new political parties within Norway, such as the Christian Democracy Party (Kristendemokratipartiet), founded in 1874, and the Centrist Liberal Party (Sentrumsliberalepartiet), founded in 1878, both of which broke away from the Conservative Party. In 1876, Emil Stang of the newly established Christian Democracy Party was elected President of Norway. His presidency saw the financial support of numerous Protestant and Lutheran charities, including orphanages and hospitals, throughout Norway. In 1880, Christian Homann Schweigaard of the Conservative Party was elected President of Norway, thus returning the Conservative Party back to national power in Norway. One October 24, 1880, Thorlief Strand died of a heart attack in his vacation home in Alesund at the age of 74. His body was then sent by a funerary train to Oslo. On November 5, 1880, the funeral of Thorlief Strand, the largest and most grand in Norwegian history both up to that point and since that point, was held and conducted throughout the city of Oslo. His body was then buried in an elaborate mausoleum, with both Greco-Roman and Nordic motifs, located outside of the city and built in 1872 for the occasion of his eventual passing.

Emil Stang

Christian Homann Schweigaard​

On June 20, 1881, after decades of industrialization in Norway and with many Norwegians from rural regions moving into urban areas and cities and being subjected to horrific working conditions, the Workers Party (Arbeiderpartiet) was founded by a number of trade unionists, socialists and other left-leaning politicians, mostly in the cities and industrial regions of Norway. The first leader of the Worker’s Party was the trade unionist, typographer, newspaper editor and book publisher by the name of Christian Holtermann Knudsen. Before long, members of the Workers Party would be elected to the Storting, and afterwords would sponsor numerous progressive and pro-labor bills in the Storting. All of these efforts to sponsor progressive and pro-labor bills would soon see success. In the 1884 presidential election, Johannes Steen of the Liberal Party was elected President of Norway. Steen was an outspoken social reformer and a supporter of both women's suffrage, labor reform and social capitalism. In 1886, under President Johannes Steen and with the cooperation of the Workers Party, the Norwegian Storting passed a series of strict worker protection laws. One year later, in 1887, the Storting, with the full support of President Steen and the Workers Party, passed a law which set both a minimum wage and an eight-hour work week within Norway. It was also during the 1880s that the ideas and philosophy of social capitalism, as theorized by the Prussian philosopher Friedrich Engels, gained a large following amongst numerous intellectuals, industrialists and other businessmen within Norway, both in cities and in rural areas. Beginning in the 1880s and continuing into the 1890s, many Norwegian industrialists, factory-owners, farmers, landowners and businessmen began to implement the ideals of social capitalism and to put them into practice within their own companies, factories and/or farms.

Christian Holtermann Knudsen, first leader of the Arbeiderpartiet

Johannes Steen​

In the election of 1888, with the popularity of the Liberal Party at an all-time high amonst the Norwegian people, Ole Anton Qvam of the Liberal Party was elected President of Norway. Under President Qvam, the progressive policies of President Johannes Steen the would continue to be implemented, and new policies would also be implemented. In 1890, under the presidency of President Ole Anton Qvam, Norway became the first nation in the world to give women suffrage and the right vote, much to the chagrin of most members of the Conservative Party and the Christian Democracy Party, most of whose members were not in favor of women’s suffrage. Thus, Norway continued to maintain its worldwide reputation as a liberal, open and progressive country and, in the words of the Spanish-born Carolinian philosopher, historian and Duke University professor George Augustus Santayana, "an island of prosperity and calm alone in a sea of massive, jingoistic and expansive empires." It was also during the Presidency of Ole Anton Qvam that relations between Norway and the Republican Union began to worsen as the result of alarming reports of massacres and killings in "Old Mexico" coming from Norwegian journalists who traveled through and reported about developments in Union-annexed Mexico (all of which the Union government of President Custer vehemently denied), as well as the ongoing Union wars of expansion in islands of the Pacific Ocean, which President Qvam stated were "unjust and unnecessary." While President Qvam tolerated and allowed AFCC Missionaries to stay and conduct activities within Norway, there was a lot of tension between the AFCC missionaries and the clergymen of the many traditional Norwegian Protestant churches. As a result, in an effort to prevent further such problems and a potential religious conflict, in 1888, in one of his last acts as President, Qvam helped to pass a number of laws which would prevent any AFC Missionaries, as well as most other foreign religious missionaries, from coming into the country and proselytizing their religions within the Republic of Norway.

Ole Anton Qvam
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The decade of the 1880s, as well as the beginning of the 1890s, was an overwhelmingly peaceful era for the Republic of Norway. However, as the 1890s continued on, the Norwegian economy began to struggle both internally and externally, as domestically-made Norwegian goods could no longer compete on the intentional market with foreign goods from larger, richer nations with large, expansive empires such as Europa, the Nordreich, the Netherlands, the Russian Empire and the Republican Union. In the election of 1892, Otto Blehr of the Centrist Party was elected President of Norway. A year later, in 1893, the Norwegian economy began to stagnate even more, and this began to the effect the lives of average, everyday Norwegians, both in the cities and the country. Thus, this was the beginning of the Norwegian Economic Crisis. Things began to change, and not for the better. This economic stagnation led to a number of developments. Outside of Norway, it led to the emigration of a number of Norwegians to nations such as the Republican Union, the Confederation of the Carolinas, Quebec, French Canada, Gran Colombia, Peru, Brazil-Rio de la Plata, Australia, French Australia and Dutch Africa, among other places. Within Norway, it led to quite a bit of instability, such as workers strikes at factories, mines and quarries, protests outside of workplaces, and protests by far-left and far-right political parties. On numerous occasions, the Norwegian police, and on some occasions even the military, had to break up worker strikes and street fights between different political parties and paramilitary groups. During the 1890s, radical violence and clashes between far-left and far-right increased within Norway. After the last big political clashes in 1895, things began to calm down in Norway, much to the relief of many Norwegians. However, the damage was done, as President Blehr was seen as in ineffective and incompetent leader who did nothing to help the lives of average Norwegians or to help to unify the Norwegian people. Thus, this peacefulness amongst continual economic stagnation would not last for all that long.
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Otto Blehr​

All in all, the first five decades in the history of the Republic of Norway were decades of freedom, liberalism, prosperity, culture and democracy, with the emergence of new political parties, the passing of new, progressive pieces of legislation and a new flowering of culture and the arts to go along with this political openness and diplomatic peace. However, with the year that was 1898, all of this was about to change with the emergence of a ex-army officer and university professor by the name of Thorvald Njord Holgersen and the Norwegian People's Fascist Party (Norsk Folksfascistparti).​

 

[Time Enough]

Wonderful work @Zoidberg12, it makes Norway's fall to Fascism a whole lot worse since it goes from this fairly progressive an liberal nation to becoming a Goosestepping friend of the RU. I bet people will look back at those five decades as the "Norwegian Renaissance"

Appreciate the mention of Social Capitalism, I can see it as being the European Protestant competitor to the Economic Clans of America. Over all great work.

 

[Zoidberg12]

Wonderful work @Zoidberg12, it makes Norway's fall to Fascism a whole lot worse since it goes from this fairly progressive an liberal nation to becoming a Goosestepping friend of the RU. I bet people will look back at those five decades as the "Norwegian Renaissance"

Appreciate the mention of Social Capitalism, I can see it as being the European Protestant competitor to the Economic Clans of America. Over all great work.

Thank you very much! I spent most of last night putting the finishing touches on it, and yes, people both in and outside of Norway will look back fondly on the first fifty years of Norwegian Independence and the Norsk gjenfødelse. Your welcome for the social capitalism mention. It seemed like something that would have a nice place within the progressive nation of Norway. Lastly, I'm planning on starting my chapter on the history of Fascist Norway soon.

In honor of today, February 6th, Waitangi Day (although I'm in the eastern US so technically it was yesterday in New Zealand), I read both of your chapters on the history of New Zealand and I loved them both. I found it very interesting how relations where between the English and the Maori and how New Zealand fell under English then Australian control. I also found the sect of Maori AFC followers to be interesting yet crazy at the same time, just like with the Japanese AFC outreach. I'm interesting to see how New Zealand will fair in regards to the rest of Australia after Australia became a fascist nation in the 1890s.

One potential mistake I noticed is that Peter Lalor, leader of Australia, was actually of Irish descent, so he may not be able to became a leader of Australia as a result, depending on how the Aussies feel about the Irish before the rise of fascism.

 

[Time Enough]

Thank you very much! I spent most of last night putting the finishing touches on it, and yes, people both in and outside of Norway will look back fondly on the first fifty years of Norwegian Independence and the Norsk gjenfødelse. Your welcome for the social capitalism mention. It seemed like something that would have a nice place within the progressive nation of Norway. Lastly, I'm planning on starting my chapter on the history of Fascist Norway soon.

In honor of today, February 6th, Waitangi Day (although I'm in the eastern US so technically it was yesterday in New Zealand), I read both of your chapters on the history of New Zealand and I loved them both. I found it very interesting how relations where between the English and the Maori and how New Zealand fell under English then Australian control. I also found the sect of Maori AFC followers to be interesting yet crazy at the same time, just like with the Japanese AFC outreach. I'm interesting to see how New Zealand will fair in regards to the rest of Australia after Australia became a fascist nation in the 1890s.

One potential mistake I noticed is that Peter Lalor, leader of Australia, was actually of Irish descent, so he may not be able to became a leader of Australia as a result, depending on how the Aussies feel about the Irish before the rise of fascism.

Thanks, it's actually been quite fun to write and to research about New Zealand. The more I read about Maori's and New Zealand I was like "Well I have to write this". One of the things I find interesting is the relationship between White Settlers and Maori's because even in OTL it was relatively peaceful for the first couple of decades or so of New Zealand with conflict only really arising when more White Settlers moved in supported by the Government which lead to Maori uprisings (and even then there were a lot of Maori's on the side of the British). In this world that never really happens to the same extent so Maori & White relations are pretty peaceful in New Zealand. Also the Maori AFC cult seemed humorous and not that far out of the realm of reality (the AFC considers the Japanese great so why not one crazy priest consider the Maori the same).

Also I see the Irish in Australia being considered okay as long as they convert to Protestantism which I imagine Lalor "Hero of the Eureka" doing this (with the choice being joining the Aborigines), of course as Australia adopts Fascism this is changed and all Irish are sent to work camps (Peter Lalor being an old man is shot).

Any up next there will be "Pakeha Maori" System so yeah.