Tribute of Angels - A 19th century timeline

[Virginia Liberal]

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[Noscoper]

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[Noscoper]

The years from 1853 to the 1857 election saw the decline of the Wings and the emergence of two new political parties in the form of the Republicans and Know Nothings. The former was founded in 1854 by forces opposed to the expansion of slavery. The latter was founded on the basis of anti-immigration sentiment especially that of Catholics. The Republican nominee was former senator of California John C. Frémont, while Know Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore. Buchanan in keeping with a promise made in his inauguration, would not run for a second term. The field was opened to any democrat to take the nomination but the unpopularity of Buchanan would harm the chances of any one chosen or in the case of this election, the two of them. The democrats would split in two along regional lines over the issue of slavery with Southern Democrats nominating David Atchison, while Northern Democrats rallied behind Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas.

In this divided environment, election was ultimately won by the Republican Party by taking a plurality of the popular vote but a majority of the electoral college. With a platform that heavily favored the north ,the Republicans had captured all the states north of the Mason-Dixon line and California. The South fearful of the rise of the new anti-slavery republicans and encouraged by the poor state of the Northern Economy begin to secede from the union one by one starting from South Carolina. The gears for a war between the states had begin.

 

[Noscoper]

Having been the only European power to back Egypt in it's conflict with Ottomans and with a number of French advisers taking part in the conquests and modernization of Muhammad Ali. France was the premier European influence in the decades before the 1850s and with the recent victory in the Crimean war. The already strong French presence increased with more advisors and businessmen arriving daily to take part in the Egyptian economy and government. One particular Egyptian good of heavy interest in France and the rest of Europe starting from 1858, the crop that started the American Civil War, cotton.

Large scale commercial cotton farming in Egypt had begin in the early 1820s with the introduction of a new variant by a French Engineer but the start of the American civil war would kick this into overdrive. With cotton supplies from the Southern United States now cut off to European markets, the European powers turned to Egypt to fill the shortfall. Egyptian profits from the cotton sales would go into reforming the country along French lines and expanding the existing system of factories and education. The Army would see only a mild increase in size with a number of bribes to Constantinople enabling the country to loosen the terms of it's defeat in 1841, which limited the Egyptian military. The growth of French influence and increasing Egyptian revenue would culminate in the joint building of a canal connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea financed by French and Egyptian investors beginning in 1859.

 

[Noscoper]

The late 1850s were not just a time of agricultural and industrial change but also a time of social and political shifts as a result of both the Cotton Boom and European influence. The first Egyptian parliament was found in 1858 made up and elected by the nation's aristocracy. The second-class Christian Coptic minority was brought closer legally and socially with the Muslim majority thanks to the abolition of the Jizya tax in 1855. In addition, the Copt population was allowed to enter the military. But the era also saw negative effects for many Christian and Muslim peasants. The Cotton boom had forced many into a de-facto feudal system to farm Cotton on large estates. Increasing Cotton production saw the cultivation of food decline leading to higher prices, increasing the burden on the peasants. Others still now found themselves leaving agriculture entirely, heading off to work in Egypt's growing industrial sector.