TLIAW: Isla de la Libertad

Isla de la Libertad
A Timeline in a Week by Upvoteanthology

40274fd496.png

Hey, what’s this?

I’ve decided to write a TLIAW, much to the dismay of the readers of my regular timeline.

What readers?

Haha. Next question.

Well, what’s it about?

Since I’ll be in Puerto Rico for the next few days for a vacay, I figured an alt-history about the region would be pretty cool.

That seems… unique.

Yeah, hopefully it’s one of the more plausible Puerto Rico scenarios out there. I think it’ll be fun if I can get to updating it. :)

And what’s the PoD?

Read the first update, you dingus.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Foundation and Fall of the Kingdom of Puerto Rico, July 1821 to August 1822:

The Kingdom of Puerto Rico was a short lived state, consisting of the island of the same name. The Kingdom began with the conspiracy and subsequent slave revolt of one Marcos Xiorro. For most of his life, being a disobedient slave, he was a large activist of abolitionism. In the late 1810’s, a Puerto Rican naval hero sent a letter to the Spanish courts, asking for liberation of the slaves on his home island. While it was never formally discussed in court, a young slave named Benito began to spread the rumor that the letter was accepted, and all the slaves of Puerto Rico were free. This confrontation towards the end of the decade lead to many slaves rebelling against their masters, and being heavily punished for it.

In 1821, Xiarro, a follower and spreader of the rumor, organized a conspiracy against the colonial government and his slave masters. The original plan involved several slaves escaping from various plantations in the town of Bayamón, then going to the sugarcane fields of Miguel Figueres to retrieve hidden cutlasses and swords from the tall grass. Xiarro would lead the slaves to capture the city, and would then unite with the multiple other revolting cities to take over San Juan, where he would be proclaimed king. On July 27, the plan was to be attempted. However, internal fighting kept the plan from being fully realized; a loyal slave of Figueres was seemingly ready to tell, but he was captured a day before the plan was put into action.

Luckily, even in its half-baked state, the conspiracy succeeded, and the slaves of Bayamón would briefly capture San Juan in August of 1821, before being pushed back by the colonial governments of Cuba and Puerto Rico itself. After their victory in San Juan, the struggle quickly turned into a war of defense. Xiarro, now known as King Marcos I, had to lead his freed slave army against the hordes of white revolters and Spanish inquisitionists. By January of 1822, the city of San Juan was lost, and most of the other cities were taken over by August of the same year. However, this large revolt would incite others throughout the continent, as well as put Puerto Rico in the seat of the abolitionist movement. Xiarro, tried and executed for mutiny in 1823, inspired a new wave of freedom and for abolition.

-----------------------------------------------------------
 
Story of the "Cubano Uprisings", 1823 to 1833:

The revolts in Cuba were directly tied to the ones on Puerto Rico two years before. Many of the slaves who revolted escaped to the other Spanish colonies, to either start a new life or to incite rebellion elsewhere. The revolts started in 1823, in the dead heat of July. Three slaves gathered something of an army in the Havana Highlands, but were quickly put down by the militarized Cubans. Later that year, a group of indentured servants from the Windward Coast rebelled during the Harvest. By 1824 and 1825, the rate at which the rebellions occurred was too fast for the Cuban army to keep up with. Troops were stationed in every town, waiting for a slave to act out of line so they could be executed. South Cuba was effective in their military movements, and were able to quickly put down any rebellion.

North and Central Cuba, however, weren’t as effective, and constant rebellion effectively collapsed the colonial government. After eight years of rebellion, the general public had either freed their slaves out of fear of crop loss, or were simply against slavery. By 1832, only the Spanish-run government supported slavery, as most of the Caribbean had become supporters of abolitionist sentiment. A decree by the Spanish governor in Cuba took the army out of their stations, and allowed greater devolved status to Africans living on the island. The different regions of Cuba were given their own surveys on abolitionist sentiment, and while most of Northern Cuba was against slavery, the South was all for it. This helped support a divide in Cuba, that would eventually be settled with the independence of Cuba in 1838. Nearly fifteen years after the revolts began, Cuba was freed, becoming a “High Level Dominion of the Spanish court” (indeed making it effectively independent). The cities of Pilon and Baracoa, two of the main cities that supported slavery still, stuck with Spain, becoming “City-State Dominions” (less autonomous than the “High Level” Dominion, but were allowed slaves). This would be enough for Spanish Cuba, until a few years later...
 
The City-States who Reinstated the Slave Trade [Excerpt from the Sugar Empire, 2012]:

The Low Level dominions of Baracoa and Pilon were seemingly uneventful; trade barely went into the region, and the slaves were barely being used in turn. Cuba was, in itself, much more powerful and successful, and Spain put its focus on the island (even if it was too liberal for its tastes). The two cities also had extremely small military power, meaning these two loyal cities meant nothing if Cuba decided to station a legion or two in the area. So, through a series of backhanded deals, the Governor-General of Baracoa met with Baldomero Espartero, who promised the town a large swath of land in South Cuba (as long as they could continue the trade of Cuban goods). Within two years, most of South Cuba had been de-facto secured under the might of “Spanish Cuba” (as it would become known), who reinstated slavery in the places where it had gone.

The efforts were only half-successful. While absorbing this small part of Cuba into its breadth, it was forced to adopt multiple liberal ideals. The government, while being staunchly anti-African and anti-abolitionism, couldn’t do anything to stop the free blacks in the north. It became quite hard to stop the spread of freedom through Cuba, as both were still parts of Spain (Spanish Cuba was just technically more integrated), and Spain would assure both governments peace. However, the cities of Baracoa and Pilon still thrived under this ruling, and the areas under the “Wall of Blood” (a line going through Spanish Cuba marking the right to slavery) were bustling as some of the last hubs of the slave trade. While Spanish Cuba was seemingly quite unstable, the next few decades would ultimately decide its fate.
 
Dueling Ideologies in the “Carib Cold War:

Throughout the early 1850’s and into the 1860’s, the Spanish Dominions in the Caribbean were growing stale, and began to hate one another. Different ideologies plagued the different regions, and every nation had their own idea of how things should be ran. Spanish Cuba was white supremacist and supporting of slavery, as they believed success in trade would tame the violent middle class. Puerto Rico was on the other end of the spectrum, but weren’t allowed to express their governmental ideals due to being a Low Level Dominion of the Spanish. Not only was the colonial government putting the people down, there was also an extreme amount of squabbling between the freed blacks and colonial settlers. The white settlers were quite liberal for their time, and had abolished slavery after the many rebellions (and short-lived nation-state) changed their opinions. Many of the freed blacks, while cooperating with their former masters, tended to harbor resentment, and silently fought back against the inherent segregation in the system. Both parties harbored a sort of “Xiarrist” belief system, in which they followed many of the philosophies the revolters had decades before. Xiarrism, as it came to be known, originated in Puerto Rico, and was the beginning of true liberalism, and the only type that would hold up in the present day. Cuba, a third party in the “Cold War” between Spanish Cuba and Puerto Rico, followed a washed-out version of Xiarrism. There was still a distinct Spanish/Mestizo ruling class, and the freed blacks were much more disenfranchised than in Puerto Rico (this system of liberalism is sometimes called pseudo-Xiarrism). Places like Haiti (and its vassal of the Dominican Republic) became much like Puerto Rico in their Xiarrism, while many island possessions of the great powers were quite the opposite. Ultimately, the emergence of this new “ultra-liberalism” would be the focus of a new order, first in the Caribbean, and then the world.
 
Most of it.

The Confederacy succeeding the way it does is horribly flawed in every way possible, but the rest of it is workable.

:I Any tips on how to change it to make it plausible, then?

EDIT: Nvm, I deleted it. I'll figure out a work-around.
 
Last edited:
:I Any tips on how to change it to make it plausible, then?

Responses in Red

The anti-slavery sentiments common in the Caribbean over the 1850’s worked their way over to North America. Abolitionist sentiments moved far below the Mason-Dixon Line, something unseen in all history. These sentiments became so strong, that the state of Delaware abolished slavery in 1855. Maryland and Missouri wished to follow suit, but politicians in the south didn't like this. Most of the union was leaning towards abolition, while only a few states were against it. The fact that these Xiarrist beliefs were finally spreading meant more power for the north (and more anger built up in the south). Many states in the south didn't agree with the ruling of the majority. Threats of secession became common in the early 1850’s, and the building rage broke after the 1856 election. Frémont, the Republican candidate for president, won 55% of the electoral college, putting him in the White House. Soon after, the pent-up anger spilled out. Georgia soon announced their secession from the union, and a couple other states followed after. Texas, one of the few, decided not to confederate with the rest, and believed it could defend itself on its own. The other states formed the “Free American Confederation”. The FAC was a loose confederation of states who all focused on slavery.

The "sentiments" would NEVER get past the border states unless the south's economy was not dependent on slavery, so Virginia and Tennessee should be firmly in the south's crowd. If the south's economy (and culture) was not dependent on slavery as otl, then their wouldn't be really any resolve for the south to succeed, and the little effort that would be there would be quickly defeated by loyalists and federal troops.

Virginia and Tennessee both had Confederate sentiments. Yet, the abolitionists of the region didn’t allow them to leave. The rest of the north, and even the rest of the slave states (who stayed), sympathized with the Union. The army doubled in size, as the US government united to defeat the "dirty southerners". There were many volunteers, and a draft was instituted to gain even more. The FAC, meanwhile, was collapsing from the inside, while Texas was subject to invasion. Slavery became an issue of unimportance, because by 1857 North Carolina had rejoined the Union. Many generals were defecting to the Union side from the Confederacy, and it seemed as if they couldn't win any battles. The Mississippi River was seized, and trade cut off. So, by 1858, the remaining generals turned the Confederacy into a military state, oppressing the people as well as their slaves. The new laws put in place forced most men to join the Confederate army, and the Union tried to tempt them to switch sides mid-battle. But, even through all this bloodshed, the sentiments of Xiarrism continued to spread. Arkansas became subject to rampant slave rebellions throughout most of 1859. South Florida collapsed due to Spanish-funded riots. The Confederate military garrisons were dissolved, as the men drafted into them lost motivation. The ideals practiced in the Carib Cold War became the focus of an entire nation, as the US Civil War brought it to light. Pseudo-Xiarrism vs. Anti-Abolitionism, the voice of a generation.

When the remaining generals go into totalitarian mode, the south should collapse immediately, they were so big on "freedom" and "states' rights" that doing this would undermine the whole purpose of the rebellion.

What was the Confederate Government Like (after 1858)?

The Confederate government was one of the worst in the world, second only to the US and the Centrist Alliance in the 1940’s. A pariah state if there ever was one, the FAC was a militaristic nation. It was run by General James Longstreet, whom the Confederacy's strict laws on dress and religion are attributed to. To counter the Union’s large attack force, the Confederacy drafted all men from ages 16 to 30 into the army (anyone older was forced to farm). At its height, the military might of the FAC totaled around 450,000, still far less than the Union’s. The government consisted of generals appointed by Longstreet. Each individual state was allowed to elect their own President, but he had little power. There was once a President for the Confederacy as a whole, but the loss of troops forced the revocation of state rights. As a whole, he Confederacy was one of the worst governments in the world, especially for its time.


Same as last time, the confederacy just wouldn't do this. They still considered themselves bound by the constitution and whatnot, just with slavery added.

Actually, I spoke a little too soon, the confederacy HASN'T succeeded yet:eek:. So I overreacted a bit, sorry about that:eek:.

On what you can improve, I suggest talking about the issue with one of the civil war experts on the site. I wish I could help you more, but I don't know how without completely restarting the entire thing.
 
Top