Un Dios, Un Imperio, Un Rey | Alternate TL.
- Thread starter Paladín Wulfen
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A New Bloody Revolution.
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
Following the end of the American War of Independence, by the Treaty of Paris of 1783, England was forced to undergo an accelerated process of economic change that transformed its largely agrarian economy into an industrial one that saw the rise of a economically prosperous middle class that was supported by fundamental economic, institutional and social changes. While Spain, saw the rise of Sociedades Económicas de Amigos del País (Economic Societies of Friends of the Country) that aimed to stimulate the economic and intellectual development of Spain. These associations allowed improvements in agriculture, livestock, industry, professions and the arts in territories such as Catalonia (Royal Catalan Society of Friends of the Country), Vascongadas (Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country) or even in the Philippines (Royal Society Economic Association of Friends of the Country of Manila). In colonial territories such as Australia, Brazil, Alta California or Louisiana, their objective was to explore and exploit local natural resources. However, France was bankrupt: The agricultural problems caused by the weather together with the piracy actions by the English Privateers led to a significant increase in poverty. By 1785, around a third of the French population lived in poverty, approximately 8 million people, which was mainly motivated by the displacement of the rural population towards the cities, which in most cases ended up contributing to the growth of the groups of mendicants who thronged Paris, Orleans and other major cities. Although the French followed the English in mechanization, England's own competition in the cotton and textile industries brought difficulties that were greatly aggravated when the Anglo-French trade treaty of 1786 opened the French market to British products beginning in mid-1787, where cheaper and superior quality British goods undermined domestic manufactures and contributed to the severe industrial depression underway in France in 1788.
However, England using the British East India Company would end up carrying out a military action in Africa led by Sir Banastre Tarleton, Colonel of the British Green Dragons during the American War of Independence. Tarleton would land in the Cape Dutch colony with a force of dragoons, using tactics comparable to those applied in Carolina. Tarleton was appointed Governor General of the Cape Presidency where he used his friendship with John Graves Simcoe to get hundreds of families of loyalists who served under the military command of both to emigrate to the colony with the aim of putting the Dutch population in a clear minority. Tarleton would be a wide promoter of the so-called Tarleton Policy, a policy aimed mainly at building a caste system in much the same way as in the territories of the Spanish Empire. In the upper part were the English or inhabitants of the island of Great Britain, in second position, were the European whites, in third place were the freed blacks, in fourth place were the slaves and natives. The Cape Presidency would stand out for using its military strength with training based on the experiences of Tarleton's Green Dragons, Simcoe's Rangers even Benedict Arnold's American Legion. The labor of Indian or African slaves provided the physical cornerstone for the creation of farms, factories and homes, these jobs could be anything from quiet where they were seen to serve their masters in luxurious colonial houses mostly with a Colonial Georgian style due mostly to the abundant presence of loyalists from Carolina, Georgia or Virginia, others, on the other hand, were forced to work going into mines, quarries, farms or factories with dangerous security conditions where the lack of security caused deaths due to illness, injuries, accidents and in many cases In cases of abuse by their supervisors, the demand for labor only increased with this and to supply it, expeditions were carried out that received the name of Chevauchée in reference to the tactics used in the Hundred Years' War.
While southern Africa was bowing under the British corporate yoke. British General Charles Cornwallis, Earl Cornwallis was appointed in February 1786 to serve as Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Fort William Presidency. Cornwallis reduced nepotism and political favoritism, instituting the practice of merit-based promotion also called meritocracy. This practice was combined with a general centralization of the British India government where judicial and policing issues in company controlled territories were a confusion of different standards which were also applied inconsistently or arbitrarily, Cornwallis imposed criminal and judicial rules alongside other issues in a Code of Laws that would be called the Cornwallis Code that served to begin to harmonize the different codes then in use. However, he also institutionalized racism in the legal system as well-educated gentlemen of European origin were widely thought to be superior to others, including those who were the product of mixed relationships in India. This, however, contrasted with the benevolent and somewhat paternalistic attitude that Cornwallis had towards the lower classes as he was interested in improving their condition, going so far as to introduce legislation to protect the native weavers who were sometimes forced to work with pitiful wages by of unscrupulous company employees, while eliminating child slavery and even introducing a reliable standard currency by building a mint in Calcutta. However, Cornwallis found himself wielding the command saber again when the Third Anglo-Mysore War broke out. The war was mainly motivated by the result of the previous one and a substantial support from France using its equivalent of the BEIC (French East India Company), the FEIC instead sold muskets, cannons and allowed Tipu Sultan to acquire French military advisers to change for a small price.
Although the imported equipment allowed for a gradual but substantial improvement in the firepower of the average Mysorean soldier, the European-style training and organization, especially from France, was a process that took far longer than Tipu Sultan was willing to wait. and decided. to start the conflict, even against the advice of his French advisers from the FEIC. The conflict was an engagement where select units of Europeans supported by large numbers of natives fought the other way, this made a status quo which held for some time until Tipu harnessed his more effective rocket artillery than the usual British European cannons. , to cause chaos in the tight and closed formations of the European troops. This would lead to greater use of light infantry which had no problem dispersing and reducing casualties. However, a third contender would enter the Indian Ring when the Spanish East India Company began to support Tipu through the direct sale of arms, gunpowder and supplies, something easier to do thanks to its proximity to the Philippines, Australia or the Japan itself. At one point, the SEIC would end up renting Ronin Regiments (mercenaries) of Japanese nationality or Philippine Sepoys. These Regiments trained and equipped according to Spanish European standards, had a reputation for skilled and disciplined fighters but were perceived as crude and barbaric due to their high sense of personal honor and religious beliefs, however, it is estimated that around five thousand soldiers of the SEIC fought in the Mysorian ranks, coming to be seen in the native populations that were put to the sword as rapacious and brutal troops, a notable element in the difference of the Ronin was the use of Japanese swords as melee weapons when they were not using the bayonet, obtaining a katana became a curiosity that gave a certain status among the French or British Companies, and the only way to get it was to take it from a dead Ronin.
The war finally ended when in a three-way attack on the Mysore territories by the Maratha, Hyderabad and Company forces led by Cornwallis. Tipu Sultan was forced to sign a peace treaty at Seringapatam where Mysore ceded about half of its territories to the other signatories. Peshwa acquired territory up to the Tungabhadra River, the Nizam received land from Krishna to the Penner River, and the forts of Cuddapah and Gandikota on the southern bank of the Penner. The East India Company received a large part of the territories of the Malabar coast of Mysore between the Kingdom of Travancore and the Kali River, and the districts of Baramahal and Dindigul at the time that the rajah of Coorg gained its independence although it was strongly subordinate to the Company. Due to the impossibility of paying the compensation of 550 lakhs rupees at once, he was forced to hand over two of his three sons as hostages of war. Which would be kept in a golden cage where they would be educated so that in the event of being returned, they would be supporters and followers of the British East India Company. However, the real chaos would be in France.
In order to find a means to pay the expenses caused by the war, Louis XVI appointed the Genevan banker Jacques Necker, who in order to avoid raising the gabelle (taxes), resorted to loans. Until the interest on the debt could not be satisfied without raising taxes. In 1781 Necker was dismissed, being appointed in his place Charles Alexandre de Colonne, who to contain the crisis, managed to convince Louis XVI to summon the Notables (delegates of the nobility and high clergy). The meeting took place in 1787, but when its representatives observed that the financial reform harmed their privileges, they refused to sanction it. In France the nobility formed 1.4% of the population and was organized into 3 groups.
- Court nobility that were about 4,000 who lived in Versailles thanks to the pensions granted by the monarch. Most were broke, living beyond their means.
- Provincial nobility who lived on feudal rights, many were bankrupt and raised rents for their impoverished peasants, they were despised by those at court and hated by the peasants.
- Robe nobility who were in charge of the bureaucracy, opposed everything that harmed their interests.
As for the clergy, it was made up of the high clergy (bishops, abbots, cardinals, etc.) who were of noble origin and lived a luxurious life at the expense of tithes, and the low clergy (priests and religious orders), of peasant origin and who lived on the “congrue portion” or subsistence ration. On August 8, 1788, and in the midst of great commotion, Louis XVI was persuaded to convene the Estates General, which had not met since 1614. But on December 27, 1788, under pressure from the Third Estate, King agreed to double the number of its deputies. In reality, in fact this did not seem to change anything, since each of the three orders was given one single vote at the time of joint voting. And so, with this system, the nobility and the clergy were the ones who decided, since their respective positions were generally very far from those of the Third Estate. What the people wanted was a constitutional monarchy, under which the representatives could meet periodically, guaranteeing the supply of food. The Estates General were convened in Versailles on May 5, 1789. The representatives of the Third Estate (formed by the bourgeoisie, the urban popular classes, and the peasantry), refused to form a separate group, and invited the nobility and high clergy to deliberate with them. But since only a few were willing to accept, the representatives of the Third Estate declared themselves in the National Assembly. Ten days later, at the famous ball game, they swore an oath not to part until they had drawn up a new constitution. In order to avoid this, Louis XVI ordered the deputies of the privileged orders to meet with the commoners, but at the same time to avoid disorders; he gave orders to the Marquis de Broglie to mobilize the foreign regiments under the command of the 60-year-old Marshal Broglie. The Swiss general Baron de Besenval was in command of 5 regiments with some 6,000 troops camped on the Champ de Mars.
The idea of using foreign troops instead of nationals, came mainly because Louis XVI since he did not trust the nationals, among which were the Swiss Regiments of Reinach, Castella, Chateauvieux, and Salis Samade; the German Regiment from Bouillon and Nassau, French Regiments from Metz, Valenciennes, and Provence; the Royal Allemand, Royal Cravate, and Mestre de Camp Général Cavalry Regiments; the Delfin and Royal Dragoon Regiments; Hussars regiments of Esterhazy, Bercheny and Lauzon. Meanwhile, the city of Paris, which then had 700,000 inhabitants, was in great turmoil due to various circumstances. The harvest of 1788 had been very scarce, which caused the price of bread to skyrocket in July 1789. To this must be added a significant contraction in trade due to the War of Independence in the United States, which led to layoffs and lower wages. The homeless spread like an alarming plague and with them the thieves. The cities were afraid of being looted by these bands of criminals, who were said to be recruited by aristocrats to intimidate the Third Estate. In the midst of these circumstances, a revolt of industrial workers broke out who destroyed a decoration paper factory in Paris, while the peasants refused to pay more seigneurial taxes or taxes, even to the extent that the Parisians tried to arm themselves to protect his city, even more so when garrison troops were being directed from Paris to Versailles, unguarding the city. All this agitation exploded when on July 12, 1789, a 29-year-old named Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoist Desmoulins, eldest son of Jean Benoît Desmoulins, lord of Bucquoy et de Sémery, lieutenant-general of the bailliage de Guise (Picardy) upon learning of the dismissal of finance minister Jacques Necker, called for the people to demonstrate in front of the Royal Palace.
Camille Desmoulins, in an impromptu harangue, addressed the mob with the following terms: “Citizens, there is no time to lose; Necker's dismissal is the signal for St. Bartholomew's Night for patriots! Tonight, Swiss and German battalions will take the Field of Mars to massacre us; There is only one solution left: take up arms!” The liberals took advantage of the deplorable situation of the mob to achieve their ends. The problems of famine had degenerated into raids on stores and shops in wealthy neighborhoods or even under military authority, the hunger produced by the high price served as a motivation to move, while the thought that wealthy speculators were to blame who hoarded the bread and motivated the high prices. This situation of revolt was further harassed by rumors of looting in the countryside by organized bandits, rumors brought by numerous vagabonds from the countryside that considerably increased insecurity. This climate received the name of The "Great Fear", which led to the voters of Paris (the group of delegates who had elected those who would represent the city of Paris in the States General), met in the town hall of the capital and decided to establish themselves as a new municipal power. They began to form a "National Guard", which would be the shock force of the new institutions and would maintain the "new order" in the streets of Paris, but this guard had no weapons, except for swords and spears, even private crossbows or muskets. . This benefited when, on July 12, a confrontation broke out between a crowd of Protestants and the Royal-German Cavalry Regiment, under the command of the Prince of Lambesc in the Louis XV square. Lambesc would order his troops to charge the angry mob, scattering but wounding dozens and killing a dozen between the sheer force of the steeds and the saber blows used.
The Regiment of Gardes Françaises (French Guards), which was destined as a permanent garrison in Paris, found itself in a dilemma because they fraternized with the popular cause but their oaths to the King were also important to them. With the start of the first riots at the beginning of July, an order was given to confine him to his quarters, but Lambesc, distrusting the Gardes Françaises on logical pretexts, decided to send a total of sixty men on horseback to protect him in front of his headquarters on the street Chaussee d'Antin. However, the measure only served to exacerbate the Gardes, who expelled the cavalry group, killing two soldiers and wounding three more, despite the fact that the officers of the French Guard made futile attempts to withdraw their men. Among the men of the guard, there would be a young Luis Felipe de Orleans, always a supporter of the Revolution who served as an officer of the Guard. The staff officers of the Gardes Françaises Regiment, seeing the situation, decided to clean their hands by giving authority to the non-commissioned officers who would end up putting the regiment at the service of the voters of Paris. The citizen revolt then had an experienced military contingent at its service, who had fought in America, definitely on the popular side. The next day, July 13, the Parisian crowd wanted to arm themselves and went to the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall) to ask for weapons. Jacques de Flesselles, who had become the highest municipal authority, decided to organize the National Guard, with the aim of maintaining order, using the Gardes Françaises as a nucleus of officers and veterans to create an elite unit. However, military discipline was soon abandoned and autonomous popular militias spread throughout the city, identified only by a cockade in the colors of Paris, red and blue, but without weapons or ammunition. To equip this militia, the mutineers looted the Garde-Meuble, popular name for the Hôtel de la Marina, where old weapons and a collection of antiquities were stored. Looting had spread through the city.
However, while the crowds looted the available and insufficiently defended military warehouses, a militia of the voters of the Town Hall made their way to Les Invalides, which contained large stocks of weapons stored in the building complex. The delegation asked Sombreuil to hand over the thirty thousand muskets stored in the cellars of the Invalides. The governor argued that he would need the approval of Versailles, due to his military oaths; meanwhile his half-hearted retirees were being ordered to begin deactivating the weapons in their possession. Subsequently, Sombreuil agreed to the revolutionaries' demands to hand over his garrison without attempting armed resistance, saving him a bloody fate as his counterpart governor of the prison-fortress of the Bastille. Inside Les Invalides, in his basement they found 28,000 rifles, 12 cannons and a mortar, but with very little ammunition. The military forces camped on the Champ de Mars did not act to defend or preserve peace, the soldiers refused to attack the French population, so the popular revolution could continue without problems. Soon after, the revolutionaries learned that cannon and gunpowder are stored in the Bastille, and headed there. In the morning, a delegation headed by the lawyer Thuriot met with Launay. They demanded the delivery of the cannons and gunpowder, Launay explained that there were no cannons or gunpowder and allowed several people to visit the fortress and verify that there was nothing. But in the afternoon, another group of revolutionaries approached the Bastille, Launay went down to talk to them as he had done before, but he is immediately assassinated, the assailants murdered the three guards inside and freed the prisoners The heads of the murdered were put on a pike and the mob went to the Hôtel de Ville (City Hall).
At the Town Hall, the crowd accused Jacques de Flesselles, provost merchants of Paris or precursor to mayor, of treason. A show trial was staged at the Palais Royal and he too was executed. In addition to the prisoners, the fortress housed the files of the Lieutenant général de police (Lieutenant General of the Police) of Paris, which were subjected to systematic looting. It was only after two days that the authorities took action to preserve the remains of that file. Beaumarchais himself, whose house was located directly opposite the fortress, did not hesitate to seize documents. Denounced, he had to restore them later. At 8:00 a.m. on July 15, 1789, at the Palace of Versailles, at the time of his awakening, the Duke of Rochefoucauld-Liancourt informed Louis XVI of the storming of the Bastille. "But is it a big riot?" asked Louis XVI. "No Sire, this is a great revolution." The duke replied. The situation in Paris, a great movement, seeing entrenched streets with barricades built with cobblestones, furniture and cars and even improvised pikes. At the same time, the elite troops stationed around the capital are increasingly affected by revolutionary propaganda and defections to the people are increasing. At one point, the colonels of these regiments informed the King that they could not be of use to the uprising as they lacked sufficient forces to be effective. The royal troops were then dispersed to their border garrisons. But then the Marquis de Lafayette, who had fought in America, was given command of the National Guard in Paris. Jean-Sylvain Bailly, leader of the Third Estate, was elected mayor of the city by voters gathered at the Hôtel de Ville and a new municipal government structure was established. On July 17, the Count of Artois, accompanied by Jules de Polignac and some great lords of the court, was the first emigrant abroad, moving to the electorate of Trier, where his maternal uncle Clement of Saxony reigned. The Marquis de Bouillé, Charles Alexandre de Calonne, the Prince de Bourbon-Condé, and most of the courtiers soon followed.
Finally, in the city of Rennes (Bretagne) the troops went over to the side of the rioters with the cry of "Vive le tiers" (Long live the people). The same scenario occurs from Strasbourg to Bordeaux, from Caen to Briançon, from Lorraine (Thionville) to the Midi via Burgundy (Auxonne). The situation led Louis XVI to go to the headquarters of the Paris Commune, validating its decisions (in particular, the formation of the National Guard) and gave orders to the regiments of regular troops to return to their barracks far from the capital. The Constituent Assembly published the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, based on the American Declaration of Independence and inspired by the principles of the Enlightenment on August 26. But on October 5, thousands of women, animated by the cry of hunger, marched towards the Court and its King in the famous Palace of Versailles; 800 men followed them. This motley crowd armed with swords and rifles was arrested by the King's bodyguards, the Swiss guards and the Flanders regiment. At night, the army shoots; and the insurgents defend themselves, the Versailles militia (reserve soldiers) intervene together with the people. The royal troops prefer to retire to their barracks. The confused mass in the morning turned into a heroic commando that lit fires, even eating a horse that had died in the previous confrontation. The echo of the combat would reach Paris; thousands of armed men gathered around City Hall, where elected officials were hesitating. Suddenly, the logical objective came out, without a given order: to Versailles! Along the way, numerous reinforcements often obviously among the most determined revolutionaries completed the column. When he arrived at Versailles, the King was firm and refused to receive General Lafayette, who commanded the National Guard. On October 6, around 06:00, the demonstrators, after a very watery night, entered the courtyard of the castle.
A confrontation took place with the guards, two guards were killed, and they rush to the royal apartments. At 11:00 a.m., the Assembly met, chaired by Mounier, and they decided to follow Louis XVI to Paris. At 1:00 p.m., the King left Versailles for Paris accompanied by the entire royal family. He at the head of the immense procession of more than 30,000 National Guard men, each with a pique bread at the point of his bayonet. Then the women escorting wheat carts and cannons, behind the unarmed Guards de Corps and the Swiss Guards. At the end, the carriage of the royal family marched escorted by Lafayette, followed by other carriages that carried some deputies and then most of the national guards and the rest of the protesters. The royal family was escorted to the Tuileries Palace, where they took up residence. From then on, the King and the National Assembly sat in Paris, watched over by the National Guard and threatened by riots. Royal power was therefore extremely weakened. France was still a monarchy, but legislative power passed to the Constituent Assembly. The specialized committees of the Assembly had the upper hand over the entire administration, which cares less and less for the King's power. The ministers were no longer more than technical executors supervised by the Assembly. However, the King retains executive power. The laws and decrees voted by the Assembly were only valid if the King promulgated them. In addition, the mayors and other agents of the Old Regime administration remained in office until the formation of a new administration. Until the summer of the following year, the mayors who had not resigned would continue to exercise their functions, although their scope had been considerably reduced. The most important problem was the economic one, since France was bankrupt.
On November 2, 1789, at the proposal of Talleyrand, Bishop of Autun, who was the mistress of Necker's daughter, Madame de Stäel, the property of the clergy was "put at the disposal" of the nation for the extinction of the public debt. In addition, the bishops and representatives of the clergy had to be chosen by representatives of the people. They became national assets to be sold in assignats (lots) to make up for the state deficit. Necker got the better of him, securing huge tracts of church property, as security for his promises to pay in gold and silver, but as there was neither, the notes were refused, following a great deal of confusion. Necker fled the Country. Given the urgency of the financial situation, the Constituent Assembly makes national property the guarantee of a document that holders can exchange for land. First used as treasury bills, they received a forced rate in April 1790 to become royal currency. Therefore, 400 million assignats (lots) in 1,000 pound titles were issued: this would be the beginning of a strong period of inflation. This would be followed on February 13, 1790, when religious vows were abolished and religious orders abolished, except, provisionally, hospitals and teachers. This already caused problems with the Vatican but little mattered to the provisional French government, but the anti-religious legislation hurt Louis XVI to the quick, leading him to say "I would rather be king of Metz than govern France under similar conditions." Shortly after, the municipalities carried out the inventories in the following months and often claimed the libraries that will be used to constitute the first funds of the municipal libraries. The sale of national goods began in October, although it greatly benefited the bourgeoisie, which had significant funds to buy quickly.
The anti-religiousness that flooded led to the fact that shortly after Louis XVI began to think about fleeing, not to loyal Normandy or Brittany as Mirabeau had suggested, but to Metz where the royalist émigrés were. In this he was ardently supported by his wife Marie Antoinette, daughter of the Austrian Emperor Leopold II, who continued to perform charitable functions and attend religious ceremonies, but focused most of her time on her children. An important event that would mark the future of the monarch would be when on April 19, 1791, the kings decided to leave Paris to spend Palm Sunday at their country residence in Saint-Cloud, they were surrounded by a crowd that prevented them from leaving and he even showered them with insults. What led the King not to shy away from publicly declaring himself a prisoner; while in private, urged on by his wife, he decided to plan an escape. Plans for a royal elopement between the Count of Mirabeau and Count Axel von Fersen, a friend of Queen Marie Antoinette, had previously been discussed, but Mirabeau's death on 2 April 1791 put an end to that discussion. With the Saint-Cloud fiasco, Marie Antoinette sought the help of Count Axel von Fersen, who revived these plans with vigour. In June, he bought a Berline and brought it to a patio at Eleanore Sullivan's residence on Rue de Clichy in Paris. The escape was arranged to take place on June 20, coinciding with a particular changing of the guard. The plan was to escape at night and travel undercover to the nearest border town, Montmédy, some 287 kilometers east of Paris; 20 hours of non-stop travel could be enough. There, the King would launch a proclamation to denounce the abuses of the Revolution. At 10:00 p.m. on June 20, 1791, the Queen took her children to Fersen in secret. She then returned to the living room, as if nothing had happened. Soon after she retired to her bedroom, gave her maids instructions for the next day, and went to bed. But as soon as she was left alone, she dressed in a simple gray suit, covered her face with a veil and left through some hidden doors of the palace. The King, for his part, had to stay conversing with the courtiers until 11:30 p.m. He then went to sleep, but ran away. Luis, Marie Antoinette, her two children, and Fersen finally met at two in the morning, two hours late. They were in a new, huge and luxurious carriage, which comfortably accommodated the five fugitives plus the princes' governess, two chambermaids, the queen's hairdresser and other assistants, with trunks full of clothes, crockery, bottles of wine and other luxuries. It was not exactly a discreet entourage, but even so, it left Paris without arousing suspicion.
The leak was discovered at 08:00 hours. At first, some tried to make believe that the King had been kidnapped by counterrevolutionaries, but at noon it was discovered that Luis had left a document explaining the reasons for his escape. The authorities reacted by ordering the arrest of anyone trying to leave the kingdom. Something that could be seen as impossible since there were a multitude of roads that left the kingdom even the extension of the kingdom. The fugitives traveled under false identities: the Marquise de Tourzel, governess to the princes, posed as a Russian aristocrat, the Baroness de Korff, while the queen and the king's sister would pretend to be her maids; the king, for his part, was the servant Durand. They changed horses at Bondy, half an hour from Paris. There, by the will of the king, they separated from Fersen. They continued without incident to Châlons, where they arrived at 6:00 p.m. They stopped for lunch and had a damaged wheel, which took them half an hour to repair, which meant that they arrived at Pont-de-Somme-Vesle two hours late, hours that were further delayed when the Royal Family neglected to the secrecy as Louis chatted with peasants while horses were changed at Fromentieres and Marie Antoinette handed out silver plates to a helpful local official at Chaintrix. In the town of Châlons the people greeted and applauded the royal group as they left but when they arrived at the small town of Varennes-en-Argonne, troops under the command of General François Claude de Bouillé, the Marquis de Bouillé who were waiting to escort them to the heavily fortified royalist citadel of Montmédy, disappeared either due to the tardiness of the royal family or even neutralized by peasant militias. Varennes-en-Argonne was only 50 kilometers from Montmédy but they arrived there after dark and stopped on the outskirts and The news of the king's escape had already spread and the town was in turmoil.
One of the most excited was the local postmaster, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, who had seen the queen long ago, when he was in the military. When he took a look inside the carriage he recognized Marie Antoinette immediately and also realized that the supposed servant Durand had the same features as the king, as depicted on the banknotes that were in circulation at the time. While the royal carriage continued on the road, Drouet, taking another route, arrived before them at Varennes where he had given the warning and had the procurator, Sauce, the highest authority in the place since the mayor was absent, examine the papers to travelers. Initially, Willow declared that the passports were in order and there was no reason to detain the carriage, but Drouet slammed his fist on the table and replied: "They are the king and his family, and if you let them go abroad you will be guilty of high responsibility treason". Willow bowed; Waiting to verify the identity of the travelers, he put them up in his own house. There Louis XVI gladly accepted the bread and cheese with gluttony that the host's wife offered them to recover. In the midst of that, Louis XVI could no longer hide his identity. He declared to everyone that he was the monarch and asked them to let him continue to Montmédy. Just then a detachment of German hussars from the 4th Hussar Regiment appeared in the town ready to rescue the king, even if it was with saber blows. But Louis XVI feared for the safety of his family and wanted to wait for more troops to arrive. However, against the will of Louis XVI, the second lieutenant in command of the Hussars who responded to the name of Michel Ney, decided to take him even if he dragged. Establishing a perimeter, they loaded the monarch and his family into their wagon under escort and left just as revolutionary militias led by two of the many commissars the National Assembly had sent in all directions to arrest the king, arrived at Verdannes.
Left: Second Lieutenant Michel Ney from 4th Hussar Regiment
Center: Prince Heir Louis (XVII) Charles of France
Right: Sargeant Joachim Murat from the National Guard
Second Lieutenant Ney, would order two hussars to go ahead looking for reinforcements in case they were attacked by the revolutionaries. Something that would come true when fifteen kilometers from Varennes-en-Argonne and thirty-five kilometers from Montmédy, groups of revolutionary militiamen, in some cases cavalry units of the National Guard, clashed with the hussars. The commanding officer of the National Guard troops was Joachim Murat, a sergeant who had a reputation for vehemently expressing republican views, denouncing his less patriotic comrades and even going so far as to change his name to Marat. Ney and Marat would come to clash swords throughout the trip until ten kilometers from Montmédy, Murat was forced to withdraw in front of the Monarchic reinforcements who, upon hearing the news that their monarch was in trouble and persecuted, came to the rescue. However, during the combats apart from sabers and cavalry lances, carbines and cavalry pistols were used: several shots ended up hitting the carriage and one ended up killing the King, but his death was not discovered until the carriage arrived at Montmédy. The death of Louis XVI caused his son Louis XVII to be proclaimed King, while he appointed the Count of Artois as Lieutenant General of the Kingdom and his mother Marie Antoinette of Austria as regent. After the flight from Varennes, the opposition of the revolutionaries to the monarchy became more and more virulent, but when Emperor Leopold II learned of the death of the King of France, he declared that the "assassination of a king at the hands of revolutionary rebels, jeopardized directly the honor of all reigning sovereigns and the security of governments. And on August 27, together with King Frederick William II of Prussia, they signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, Saxony, in which the monarchs stated that they were willing to unite with other European monarchs in support of Louis.
This declaration was interpreted by the French National Assembly as a declaration of war by the European powers, but on September 1, 1791, the tensions provoked the anger of the revolutionaries against the counterrevolutionaries, which were made up of monarchists, Catholics or even dissidents. , exploded in the so-called September Massacre: A ten-day event where mass executions were carried out between September 1 and September 10, in Paris the majority of the prison population of the Prison of l was murdered. 'Abbaye, Châtelet Prison, Carmes Prison, Bicêtre Prison, Salpêtrière Prison, La Force Prison and Conciergerie Prison. The first massacre occurred when a group of prisoners who were to be transferred to the prison de l'Abbaye near Saint-Germain-des-Prés were met by a mob armed with pitchforks, pikes, knives and axes. Immediately, the crowd pounced on the prisoners, killing them all before going to the prisons to continue their task, brutally and atrociously but systematically executing the prisoners without distinguishing between political prisoners (nobles, refractory priests and former Swiss guards) and common law. One of the most famous victims and used as propaganda would be Maria Teresa of Saboya-Carignano, who identified herself as Princess of Lamballe. She married Louis-Alexander, Prince de Lamballe, heir to the greatest fortune in France, at the age of seventeen, soon after becoming a friend and confidant of Queen Marie-Antoinette, earning a warning before her escape. Lambelle, was in La Force prison, which was attacked by radical revolutionaries who herded the prisoners before makeshift courts made up of revolutionary citizens, who tried and summarily executed them. Each prisoner was asked a series of questions, after which he was released with the words "vive la nation" ("long live the nation") or sentenced to death with the expression "take him to the Abbey" or "let him go", after which the condemned man was taken to a courtyard and where a crowd of men, women and children awaited.
On September 3, Lamballe was taken to a courtyard along with other prisoners to wait to be brought before the court. After being brought before it, María Teresa was asked to "swear to love freedom and equality and to swear to hate the king, the queen and the monarchy". The princess agreed to swear freedom but she refused to denounce the monarchs. At this point, her trial ended with the following words: "Emmenez Madame" ("Take away Madame"). Her loyalty to the royal family outweighed her own sense of self-preservation. Dressed in a pure white gown, Lamballe was immediately led out into the street, where a group of men who had previously been imprisoned in the Bastille awaited, Maria Theresa was raped before being violently blinded to be paraded through Paris tied with a gold necklace. dog, for hours she was subjected to humiliation to the point that her breasts were cut off along with other types of bodily mutilations. Her naked and bruised corpse—an amalgamation of pale, red, and purple—was eviscerated and decapitated, her head finally being impaled on the point of a pike. A large number of witnesses would see his head paraded through the streets on a pike while his body was dragged by the mob shouting "la Lamballe!", but the real atrocity was the fate suffered by his remains being subjected to an even greater sick degeneracy that included necrophilia and other types of perversions that would make decent men pale, but by now most people were liberated mental patients. The international reaction to this fact made the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the United Provinces and the Kingdom of Spain declare war on the French Republic. The first of the French Revolutionary Wars had begun.
Perhaps it is one of the most brutal and graphically explicit chapters, but it is the French Revolution. It was not clean. It wasn't pretty. It was not fair. Thousands died and in periods of instability and lawlessness atrocities occur. The death of Louis Sr. occurred to me as a way to avoid torture of poor Louis Son, who was tortured, malnourished and beaten daily while he was locked up. Even in the trial against Marie Antoinette, it came to be used as a crime that Marie Antoinette, her own mother, masturbated him and made him participate in sexual games. He was a child who did not know what was happening around him and such things show how crazy and brutal the situation was in France during the Revolution.
So does the monarchy still falls or do we instead see a "republican regency" for the heir who will become essentially a figurehead?
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
The monarchy is in civil war between the Republicans in Paris vs the Royalists and catholics in montmedy with Louis XVII as symbol of his cause.
Philippist
Banned
Good Chapter, and i like the map you did! Can you do another one setted before the War of the Spanish Sucession? Have some doubts on some exact borders
Philippist
Banned
@Paladín Wulfen
es.m.wikipedia.org
Did this still happen?
Acción del 9 de agosto de 1780 - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Did this still happen?
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
Yep. And casually I see the video upload by the Spanish Navy about that@Paladín Wulfen
Acción del 9 de agosto de 1780 - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Did this still happen?
Philippist
Banned
I believe Oceania has a lot of potential, a Hispano-Dutch War over control of Indonesia and New Zealand...
Philippist
Banned
@Paladín Wulfen
Why didn't an even more OP Spain than OTL have a harsher peace treaty in 1781?
Philippist
Banned
Btw i like these types of "somewhat similar but not the same" AltHists, as you may learn some OTL history too
The Kingdom of America
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
The End of the War of Independence of the United States, brought with it that the young Republic was a nation free of foreign control. However, the newly created United States was financially fragile; Britain relinquished control of the region, but the native nations did not take part in the negotiations, and the new United States was no longer bound by British treaties with the native nations. Brigadier General Allan Maclean at Fort Niagara reported that the native nations could not believe that the King would give his land to the United States, nor that the United States would accept them. This led to an increase in hostilities that were not feasible with the much-needed peace to reduce military spending. In the midst of such a situation, Shay's Rebellion broke out. Daniel Shays was a veteran of the American Revolution who left the Continental Army on October 14, 1780, following the Execution of Major John Andre. Known for holding the rank of company commander, he had some reputation in the locals, but upon returning to his farm he found that many of his fellow veterans and farmers were just like him, summoned to court for unpaid debts, which he could not find. pay because he had not been paid in full for his military service. the veterans claimed they were treated unfairly after their release, and that businessmen were trying to squeeze money from small landowners to pay off their own debts to European war investors, though many rural Massachusetts communities first tried to petition the the legislature in Boston, the legislature did not respond substantially to those requests. The situation worsened when James Bowdoin, a wealthy merchant, was elected as the 2nd Governor of Massachusetts.
Bowdoin, contrary to the more popular Governor Hancock, decided to raise taxes and with it the collection of back taxes along with additional property taxes to raise funds for the state portion of foreign debt payments. Such acts, combined with a general postwar economic depression and a credit crunch caused by a shortage of foreign exchange, wreaked havoc throughout rural parts of the state. Shay would end up leading with another veteran: Job Shattuck, an organization that would be christened the Regulators, a reference to the North Carolina Regulator movement that sought to reform corrupt practices in the late 1760s. This led to Bowdoin ending up ordering his arrest. of Regulator leaders, including Shattuck, who ultimately died while resisting arrest. Shattuck's death would end up radicalizing the organization, which began to organize an overthrow of the state government. Shays, Day and other rebel leaders would begin to organize their forces, establishing regional regimental organizations that were run by democratically elected committees to prepare for an uprising, the first major target being the federal armory in Springfield which contained a large supply of weapons and ammunition. . However, General Shepard, on Governor Bowdoin's orders, took possession of the armory and used his arsenal to arm a force of some 1,000 militiamen. This was done unaware that the armory was federal property, not state property, and did not have permission from Secretary of War Henry Knox. When the Regulators, in two contingents, advanced to Springfield on January 25, they found Shepard's militia waiting for them. Shepard first ordered warning shots over the heads of Shays's men, which was seen by the Regulators as an insult but also a reminder of the Boston Massacre nearly a decade ago. Almost without Shay being able to stop them, the Regulators charged the outnumbered militia with shouts and sporadic shots.
Shephard lacked time to order his two cannons to fire grape shots, so it soon turned into a melee in which the superior numbers and motivation of the Regulators prevailed, losing 400 dead between both sides, while General Shephard retired to Worcester. The Regulators militia saw their force fully equipped with muskets, bayonets and a few cannons, but their hostility only called for Federal troops led by the almost universally loved George Washington, who was the symbol of the American Revolution, of course. Throw off the British yoke, unify the warring nation, and fight for the freedom of the Thirteen Colonies. 5,000 men eager to fight under Greater Washington, who expected a quick victory even while fighting their national brothers. Washington accomplished his mission. But Washington was disgusted by how his nation had degenerated into something as corrupt, hypocritical, even tyrannical as King George's England. On George's orders, Shay and other major rebel leaders were executed for looting federal property, while Governor Bowdoin was ousted for abuse of the people of Massachusetts. George Washington began to look realistically at the letter he received on May 22, 1782 in Newburgh, New York. A letter written by Colonel Lewis Nicola. In the letter, Nicola proposed that Washington become the King of the United States, at that time Washington refused because it clashed with his republicanism, but with the vision of today. He viewed the Great Experiment as a botched experiment that needed to be fixed.
Washington's thoughts materialized in May 1787, during the Great Convention in Philadelphia. Numerous delegates and representatives including characters of social importance from the Thirteen States that made up the United States. The Convention was made under the pretext of reviewing the Articles of Confederation, although this would have an unexpected outcome when George Washington proposed the "Newburgh" Plan that would be supported by Alexander Hamilton. The Newburgh plan advocated that the solution to the problems of the United States was found in a strong central government focused on the figure of a Monarch; This monarch would be neutral between the various factions or interest groups that divided society: creditors and debtors, rich and poor, or farmers, merchants and manufacturers. The Monarch's rule would be followed by a bicameral chamber with an elected lower house and an appointed upper house. The lower house would be divided in proportion to the population of each state, while each state would have 2 seats in the upper house for equal representation. There would also be a Supreme Court made up of 9 judges appointed for life by the Monarch. Perhaps, the novelty was when in the event that the monarch dies without heirs, the Senate (Upper House) will vote, after a period of mourning, to elect a new Monarch. The monarchical and Republican disputes would be so intense because according to the words of the Jeffersonians "They did not fight to change a king three thousand miles away for a king three miles away", however Washington's reputation and popularity made it so that by September 1787 , George Washington was elected as King of the Kingdom of America. Although it was thought of changing the name of the nation to Empire, Washington refused. Even though his domains stretched from the woods of New England to the swamps of Georgia, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. George refused to allow his kingdom to have such a name as he would advocate a path similar to that followed by the Roman Empire.
This decision put Jorge on the same level as Jorge III of Great Britain and Louis XVI of France, even Carlos III of Spain. George Washington built a navy and army that was significantly more capable than the Revolution, with better morale, better food, equipment, even leaders, while ruthlessly reducing bribery and corruption, eliminating incompetent officers. The beginnings of Washington's reign proved to be monumental in shaping the country. Washington established a "Royal American Cabinet" that included a series of Secretaries ranging from War, Treasury, even State. In 1790, he formally authorized the establishment and funding of a military academy at Fort Clinton, this academy would be christened the Royal American Military Academy (RAMA) and would have a curriculum focused on mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering, history, physical geography , philosophy, leadership including horsemanship together exercise. The following year, he would found the Royal American Naval Academy (RANA) in Annapolis, which would fulfill the same function as the RAMA but oriented to the navy. The first Director of the Academy would be John Paul Jones known as the "Father of the Royal American Navy". George Washington proved to be a capable administrator and a judge of talent and character, speaking regularly to department heads to get their advice. At Hamilton's suggestion, he improved or established a number of sources of revenue for the national government, such as royalties, excises, canal and highway tolls, shipping fees, and others. All attractive as "indirect" taxes versus direct taxes, such as property or income taxes. This would be followed by the implementation of a series of moderate tariffs on imported goods, particularly those from Great Britain.
Products that were flooding American markets, to serve both to protect burgeoning American industry from unfair competition and to increase government revenue. The funds obtained would be reinvested in industrial subsidies to grow US manufacturing and also to build internal improvements such as canals and highways to improve trade between the states. A third initiative was the sale of much land in the Northwest Territory to interested citizens who allowed the colonization of the same territory. These economic measures would have a tremendous impact on the economy and politics of the Kingdom of America. However, Washington had to face the problem of Slavery, which had been in progress since before the Revolution first by the Quakers and then by the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage abbreviated as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. The Society came into conflict with the senators from the south, who blocked any attempt to abolish an institution that was important to their plantation economy. After a contentious debate, Senate leaders shelved the proposals without a vote, setting a precedent in which the Senate generally avoids discussing slavery. That didn't stop Washington from passing two slave-related laws, though: the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793; which made it a Royal offense to assist an escaped slave, and established the legal system by which escaped slaves would be returned to their masters, while the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which limited the Kingdom of America's participation in the transport of slaves by imposing quotas on the export of slaves from the country.
The first military action that the Kingdom of America would do would be the Tripolitan Intervention. An attempt by America, with the aim of ending Barbary piracy protected by the Barbary States who demanded a tribute per ship to guarantee immunity against pirate attacks, which they themselves sponsored. These pirate attacks, dating back to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, were only reduced when the Spanish Emperors undertook cleansing and pacification campaigns that in themselves were more religious genocide and destruction than anything else. With the change of the Spanish dynasty, Spanish attention shifted away from that front and quickly the Muslim rulers of Tripoli and other regions made the capture of merchant ships and the enslavement or ransom of their crews a very lucrative method of gain wealth and naval power. The Trinitarian Order, founded in France together with the Mercedarian Order in Spain, revived their special mission of raising and disbursing funds for the relief and rescue of prisoners from Mediterranean pirates. However, Barbary corsairs led attacks on the Royal American Merchant Navy in an attempt to extort ransom for the lives of captured sailors and ultimately tribute from the Kingdom of America to prevent further attacks, as they did with various states. The situation worsened on July 25, 1788 with the capture of the schooner Maria and the Dauphin. The Tripoli Regency would demand $700,000 for each ship and crew, unfortunately the American envoys were only given a budget of $40,000 to achieve peace. Diplomatic talks to arrive at a reasonable sum for tribute or for the ransom of captured sailors struggled to advance. The crews of the Maria and Dauphin remained enslaved for over a decade, soon joining the crews of other ships captured by the Barbary states.
In 1795, Tripoli had about 115 American sailors plus 200 retained civilian citizens, including the prosperous Bostonian merchant Ann Bent. Despite the fact that captivity in Tripoli was a form of slavery, prisoners could become rich and achieve a status higher than that of a slave. The proof was John Lawrance Simmons, who rose to the highest position a Christian slave could achieve in Tripoli, becoming counselor to the bey (governor). Even so, most of the captives were forced to perform forced labor in the service of the Barbary pirates and in extreme conditions that exposed them to parasites and diseases, even Ann Bent was placed in the Bey's harem while pregnant. When news of the captivity reached America, the Americans lobbied for direct action by the government to end piracy against Kingdom of America ships. The first test as monarch for George Washington was set: He in response argued that the job of the American Royal Fleet was to protect our commerce and punish the insolence of any attacker, by sinking, burning, or destroying his ships and vessels wherever they were found. Faced with the refusal to pay, the pasha declared war on the Kingdom of America, not through formal written documents, but in the usual Barbary manner of cutting down the flag pole in front of the Consulate of the Kingdom of America. Before learning that Tripoli had declared war on America, Washington sent a small squad. composed of three frigates and a schooner, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale. He carried presents and letters to try to keep peace with the Barbary powers. However, in the event that war had been declared, Dale was instructed to "protect American ships and citizens from possible aggression."
The Royal American Navy was not challenged at sea, but still, deploying many of the navy's best ships to the region throughout 1796. RAS Argus, RAS Chesapeake, RAS Constellation, RAS Constitution, RAS Enterprise, RAS Intrepid, RAS Philadelphia, RAS Vixen, RAS Monarch, RAS Congress, RAS Essex, RAS John Adams, RAS Nautilus. Throughout 1796, he established and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and carried out a campaign of raids and attacks against the fleets of the cities. The turning point in the war was the Battle of Derna where former consul William Eaton, a former army captain who used the title "general", and American Royal Marine Corps (ARMC) 1st Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon They led a force of eight US Marines and five hundred Spanish mercenaries on a march across the desert from Tunis to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. This was the first time the Royal American flag had been flown in victory on foreign soil. The action would be commemorated in a line from the Marines' Hymn: "the shores of Tripoli". The capture of the city gave American negotiators leverage to ensure the return of the hostages and the end of the war. Tired of the blockade and raids, and now under threat of a continued advance on Tripoli proper, the Bey signed a treaty ending hostilities. In agreeing to pay a $60,000 ransom for American prisoners, the government made a distinction between paying tribute and paying ransom. At the time, some argued that buying sailors from slavery was a fair trade to end the war. Emissary William Eaton, diplomat Tobias Lear and others felt that Derna's capture should have been used as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of all American prisoners without having to pay a ransom. The First Barbary War was beneficial to the reputation of the Royal American military command and warfare mechanism, which until then had been relatively untested. The First Barbary War demonstrated that the Kingdom of America could wage a war far from home, and that American forces had the cohesion to fight together as Americans rather than separately as Georgians, New Yorkers, etc.
Perhaps one of the most outstanding events that would mark the Reign of George Washington, would be the creation of the Premier Grand Lodge of America. Masonic lodges were a phenomenon that emerged in the early 17th century. Originally made up of guilds and associations of working stonemasons, they soon became somewhat aristocratic like the Anglo-American lodges focused on the monarchy, aristocracy and the church. George Washington would have been a Mason since 1752 when he was initiated into the Fredericksburg Lodge. These lodges were indirectly connected to attached regiments of the British Army and later to patriotic groups and figures such as Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, even James Monroe. These Lodges served to form a commitment to support each other and provide sanctuary for fellow Masons if necessary. The group's long-term brotherhood and secrecy served as a vehicle of exclusion, preventing British spies from delving into their networks. But Freemasonry did not end with the Revolution. George Washington knew that the lodges of Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Boston, as they continued their social gatherings, networking, and opportunities for charity, would shake hands under the table and praise secret symbols. Which from the outside would not be seen in such an inoffensive way. Therefore, Washington decided to form the Premier Grand Lodge of America, a way to control Freemasonry in America and avoid the threat of a civil war motivated by the Lodges. However, perhaps the most contentious point that arose at the beginning were his theological views that clashed with Catholicism or Lutheranism. These facts would motivate the most radical or adventurous Freemasons not to be afraid to participate in controversial foreign adventures such as an attempted uprising in Louisiana or in the Spanish Caribbean.
On July 16, 1790, the city of Washington DC was established in the Constitution of the Kingdom of America to serve as the nation's capital. Washington, DC, formally the District of Columbia, also known simply as Washington or just DC. DC was built by choice of George Washington along the Potomac and Anacosti rivers, on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia to differentiate and distinguish itself from the rest of the states. The geographical position of the capital was linked to the controversy that Alexander Hamilton and the northern states wanted the new government to assume the debts of the Revolutionary War, and Thomas Jefferson and the southern states that they wanted the capital to be located in a location friendly to slave-owning agricultural interests. The District included two pre-existing settlements in the territory: the port city of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, and the port city of Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749. The port city of Alexandria and its surrounding area were notable for having property owned by George Washington and his family, including Mount Vernon, Washington's personal home and plantation, were only seven miles from Washington DC. With the site selected, Washington appointed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant in early 1791, charged with laying out a plan for the new city on an area of land in the center of the territory that lies between the northeast bank of the Potomac River and the northwest bank of the East Branch of the Potomac. L'Enfant would work on the so-called "Plan of the city destined to the permanent seat of the government of the Kingdom of America..." where the layout of the city would be centered on a grid system, in which the center would be the building of the Capitol. L'Enfant would present a vision of a bold modern city with grand boulevards and ceremonial spaces reminiscent of another great world capital: Imperial Rome.
When the plan came into use, it underwent minor changes to the city layout with the approval of L'Enfant, who allowed the straightening of the longest avenues and the removal of Place No. 15 from L'Enfant's original plan. child In L'Enfant's plan and which was maintained, there was a landscaped esplanade 122 meters wide, which was to run approximately 1.6 km on an east-west axis in the center of an area. A narrower avenue was designed to connect the "house of Congress" (the Capitol) with the "house of the King" (the White House). However, America had to face the Western Confederacy created to defend against the United States and then the Kingdom of America. The confederation was a loose association of mainly Algonquian-speaking tribes in the Great Lakes area. The Wyandots (Hurons) were the nominal fathers, or the main tribe guaranteeing confederacy, but the Shawnees and Miamis provided the bulk of the fighting forces. Other tribes in the confederation included the Delaware Confederacy (Lenape), Council of Three Fires (Ojibwes, Odawas, and Potawatomis), Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, and Wabashs (Weas, Piankashaws, and others). In most cases, an entire tribe was not involved in the war; Indian societies were generally not centralized. Individual villages and warriors and chiefs decided on participation in the war. About 200 Cherokee warriors from two bands from the Overmountain towns fought alongside the Shawnees from the start of the Revolution through the years of the Indian Confederacy. In addition, the Cherokee leader of Chickamauga (Lower Town), Dragging Canoe, sent a contingent of warriors for a specific action. Some warriors from the southeastern Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, who had been traditional enemies of the northwestern tribes, served as scouts for the United States during those years, but that changed with the end.
Still opposed to the Kingdom of America, some British agents in the region sold arms and ammunition to the Indians and encouraged attacks on American settlers. Alexander McKee, a British agent born to a Shawnee mother, was a central figure in the confederation. He worked to unite the various Native American nations and bands in the region, but also represented the interests of Great Britain. British Lieutenant Governor John Simcoe, a veteran of the US Revolutionary War, was delighted with the failures of the United States and hoped for British participation in the creation of a neutral buffer state between America and Canada. In 1793, however, Simcoe abruptly changed policy and sought peace with the Kingdom of America to avoid opening a new front in the French Revolutionary Wars. Simcoe treated Kingdom of America Commissioners Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph, and Timothy Pickering cordially when they arrived at Niagara in May 1793, seeking an escort across the Great Lakes to avoid the fate of John Hardin and Alexander Truman in 1792. War parties launched a series of isolated raids in the mid-1780s, resulting in increased bloodshed and mistrust. In April 1786, a militia from Vincennes attacked a village on the Embarras River, forcing the Piankeshaws to move away and consolidate near the Vermilion River. Over 400 Piankeshaws and Weas returned with a war party in July, but were persuaded not to attack Vincennes. That fall, Generals George Rogers Clark and Benjamin Logan led two columns of Kentucky militia in punitive raids against Native American villages north of the Ohio River. Clark's force, considered the main column, left in September and marched north along the Wabash River into the Illinois country.
He was hampered by logistical problems caused by the scarcity of water in the river, and when he reached the mouth of the Vermilion River in October, he was faced with a mutiny and mass desertion. Clark returned with the remnants of his force to Vincennes, his reputation in ruins. Meanwhile, General Logan recruited and trained for his secondary column of Federal soldiers and mounted Kentucky militia against various Shawnee towns along the Mad River. The Shawnee nation was divided in its response to settlers from the Kingdom of America, but the Kentucky settlers made no distinction between hostile and friendly villages. Shawnee villages along the Crazy River were defended mainly by noncombatants while warriors hunted or raided forts in Kentucky. Logan burned the native towns and food supplies, and killed or captured numerous natives. Against Logan's orders, Captain Hugh McGary assassinated an elderly Shawnee chief named Moluntha, who was considered a friend of the Kingdom of America and had even raised a striped flag to welcome Logan's men. Logan continued to 7 other villages, killing, torturing, raping, or capturing dozens of villagers, including women and children. The militia also looted his property and burned his crops before returning to Kentucky. Logan's raid devastated the Shawnee nation, whose survivors fought that winter over destroyed crops, but also united the Shawnees against the Americans. Reports of the Logan Raid alarmed the Confederate council in Detroit in November, and Shawnee raids into Kentucky were reported in December 1786. Native American raids on both sides of the Ohio River resulted in increased casualties. . In the mid-to-late 1780s, American settlers south of the Ohio River in Kentucky and travelers north of the Ohio River suffered approximately 1,500 casualties. The settlers retaliated with attacks on Indians.
In 1789, the new Secretary of War for the newborn Kingdom of America, Henry Knox, argued that Congress had provoked Native Americans by claiming possession of their territories. The following year, the new king of America, George Washington, and Secretary of War Henry Knox, ordered General Josiah Harmar to launch a campaign, a major Western offensive into the country of the Shawnees and Miami. General Harmar's ultimate goal was Kekionga, a large Native American city that was important to the British commercial economy, protecting a strategic port between the Great Lakes Basin and the Mississippi Basin. Washington had, as early as 1784, told Henry Knox that a strong American post should be established at Kekionga. However, Knox was concerned that an American fort at Kekionga would provoke the Indians, and denied Saint-Clair's request to build a fort there. Saint-Clair, in 1790, had told Washington and Knox that "we shall never have peace with the Western Nations until we have a garrison there." Western native leaders, meanwhile, met at Kekionga to determine a response to the Harmar Fort Treaty. Harmar's reputation had preceded him, so many of the Kentucky and Pennsylvania militiamen were "substitutes" (men paid to take the place of the men they were called to serve). Many of the experienced Indian fighters did not want to serve under Harmar in the state militias, they were paid $3 a day, leading Warner to point out that for a typical farmer; this would mean neglecting his farm and leaving his family and friends behind him to go on a dangerous mission in the northwest frontier for 60 days, during which time he would earn a total of $60 for his troubles.
Most farmers would not go voluntarily if called, and when called would hire substitutes, who came from the lower elements of American society in their stead. Warner wrote that US Army soldiers were recruited from the lowest elements of American society, but they served long term and were well trained. By contrast, Harmar had only two weeks to train his Kentucky militia and only a few days to train the Pennsylvania militia before he set out on October 1, 1790. Harmar managed to muster 1,300 militiamen and 353 regulars to loot and destroy. Kekionga (present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana), the capital of the Miami Indians, while the Kentucky militia under the command of Major Jean François Hamtramck would create a diversion by burning villages on the Wabash River. Before leaving on his expedition, Harmar was faced with disputes among the various militia commanders over who should command whom, with Colonel James Trotter and Colonel John Hardin of the Kentucky militia openly feuding with each other. Shortly before the expedition began in September 1790, Knox sent Harmar a letter accusing him of alcoholism. Harmar, who was heavily influenced by the Blue Book for Prussian-style troop training, marched his men in a formation that would have been appropriate for Central Europe or the Atlantic coast of the American kingdom, but not in the wilds of the Northwest. This led to his men becoming bogged down, averaging about 10 miles a day. Harmar had hoped to reach Kekionga to capture the British and French-Canadian fur traders, whom he called the true villains of the war because they provided the Miamis with arms and ammunition, but his slow progress prevented that. To Harmar's surprise, Little Turtle chief of the miamis refused to fight, preferring to retreat and burn his villages.
On October 19, a scouting party of about 400 mixed forces under the command of Colonel John Hardin was lured into an ambush near the village of Le Gris, losing 129 soldiers in one of two defeats that has been dubbed Hardin's Defeat. The next day, another scouting party under Ensign Phillip Hartshorn was ambushed, but Harmar did not move to help them or recover his remains. Finally, on October 21, 1790, a mixed group of militiamen and regulars under Colonel Hardin established attack positions at Kekionga and waited for reinforcements from General Harmar, who never arrived. Instead, Little Turtle's forces overwhelmed Hardin and forced the American forces to withdraw in the second battle known as Harmar's Defeat. With 3 straight losses, over 300 casualties, and low morale, Harmar withdrew to Fort Washington. Following Harmar's defeat, Knox changed his mind and ordered St. Clair to fortify Kekionga the following year. Because they were both present when Harmar's army arrived, this was the first full military operation shared between Miami leader Little Turtle and Shawnee Blue Jacket leader. It was the largest Native American victory over American forces until the following year, and it emboldened the Native nations within the Northwest Territory. The following January, Indian forces attacked the settlements in the Big Bottom massacre and the Siege of Dunlap Station. Washington ordered Major General Arthur St. Clair, who had been President of Congress when the Northwest Ordinance was passed and was now serving as Governor of the Northwest Territory, to mount a more vigorous effort by the summer of 1791 and build a series of forts along the Maumee River. . The hastily assembled expeditionary force had considerable trouble finding adequate supplies, receiving undamaged materials from Philadelphia, and finding qualified merchants.
After gathering men and supplies, St. Clair was somewhat ready, but the troops had received little training. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel James Wilkinson led raids along the Wabash River, intending to create a diversion that would aid St. Clair's march north. At the Battle of Kenapacomaqua, Wilkinson killed 9 Wea and Miami, and captured 34 Miami as prisoners, including a daughter of Miami war chief Little Turtle. Her daughter who died after two months of being beaten and raped by the soldiers who were guarding her who allowed other soldiers and volunteers to take it out on her daughter. Many of the confederate leaders were considering peace terms to present to the Kingdom of America, but when they received news of Wilkinson's raid, they prepared for war. Wilkinson's raid had the opposite effect, rallying the tribes against St. Clair rather than distracting them. During what would be four years from 1791, General Mad Anthony Wayne commanded the American Army, a well-trained and motivated force that, using total war tactics, waged a war that would eventually drive the natives into Canada or beyond the Mississippi.
Bowdoin, contrary to the more popular Governor Hancock, decided to raise taxes and with it the collection of back taxes along with additional property taxes to raise funds for the state portion of foreign debt payments. Such acts, combined with a general postwar economic depression and a credit crunch caused by a shortage of foreign exchange, wreaked havoc throughout rural parts of the state. Shay would end up leading with another veteran: Job Shattuck, an organization that would be christened the Regulators, a reference to the North Carolina Regulator movement that sought to reform corrupt practices in the late 1760s. This led to Bowdoin ending up ordering his arrest. of Regulator leaders, including Shattuck, who ultimately died while resisting arrest. Shattuck's death would end up radicalizing the organization, which began to organize an overthrow of the state government. Shays, Day and other rebel leaders would begin to organize their forces, establishing regional regimental organizations that were run by democratically elected committees to prepare for an uprising, the first major target being the federal armory in Springfield which contained a large supply of weapons and ammunition. . However, General Shepard, on Governor Bowdoin's orders, took possession of the armory and used his arsenal to arm a force of some 1,000 militiamen. This was done unaware that the armory was federal property, not state property, and did not have permission from Secretary of War Henry Knox. When the Regulators, in two contingents, advanced to Springfield on January 25, they found Shepard's militia waiting for them. Shepard first ordered warning shots over the heads of Shays's men, which was seen by the Regulators as an insult but also a reminder of the Boston Massacre nearly a decade ago. Almost without Shay being able to stop them, the Regulators charged the outnumbered militia with shouts and sporadic shots.
Shephard lacked time to order his two cannons to fire grape shots, so it soon turned into a melee in which the superior numbers and motivation of the Regulators prevailed, losing 400 dead between both sides, while General Shephard retired to Worcester. The Regulators militia saw their force fully equipped with muskets, bayonets and a few cannons, but their hostility only called for Federal troops led by the almost universally loved George Washington, who was the symbol of the American Revolution, of course. Throw off the British yoke, unify the warring nation, and fight for the freedom of the Thirteen Colonies. 5,000 men eager to fight under Greater Washington, who expected a quick victory even while fighting their national brothers. Washington accomplished his mission. But Washington was disgusted by how his nation had degenerated into something as corrupt, hypocritical, even tyrannical as King George's England. On George's orders, Shay and other major rebel leaders were executed for looting federal property, while Governor Bowdoin was ousted for abuse of the people of Massachusetts. George Washington began to look realistically at the letter he received on May 22, 1782 in Newburgh, New York. A letter written by Colonel Lewis Nicola. In the letter, Nicola proposed that Washington become the King of the United States, at that time Washington refused because it clashed with his republicanism, but with the vision of today. He viewed the Great Experiment as a botched experiment that needed to be fixed.
Washington's thoughts materialized in May 1787, during the Great Convention in Philadelphia. Numerous delegates and representatives including characters of social importance from the Thirteen States that made up the United States. The Convention was made under the pretext of reviewing the Articles of Confederation, although this would have an unexpected outcome when George Washington proposed the "Newburgh" Plan that would be supported by Alexander Hamilton. The Newburgh plan advocated that the solution to the problems of the United States was found in a strong central government focused on the figure of a Monarch; This monarch would be neutral between the various factions or interest groups that divided society: creditors and debtors, rich and poor, or farmers, merchants and manufacturers. The Monarch's rule would be followed by a bicameral chamber with an elected lower house and an appointed upper house. The lower house would be divided in proportion to the population of each state, while each state would have 2 seats in the upper house for equal representation. There would also be a Supreme Court made up of 9 judges appointed for life by the Monarch. Perhaps, the novelty was when in the event that the monarch dies without heirs, the Senate (Upper House) will vote, after a period of mourning, to elect a new Monarch. The monarchical and Republican disputes would be so intense because according to the words of the Jeffersonians "They did not fight to change a king three thousand miles away for a king three miles away", however Washington's reputation and popularity made it so that by September 1787 , George Washington was elected as King of the Kingdom of America. Although it was thought of changing the name of the nation to Empire, Washington refused. Even though his domains stretched from the woods of New England to the swamps of Georgia, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Mississippi River. George refused to allow his kingdom to have such a name as he would advocate a path similar to that followed by the Roman Empire.
This decision put Jorge on the same level as Jorge III of Great Britain and Louis XVI of France, even Carlos III of Spain. George Washington built a navy and army that was significantly more capable than the Revolution, with better morale, better food, equipment, even leaders, while ruthlessly reducing bribery and corruption, eliminating incompetent officers. The beginnings of Washington's reign proved to be monumental in shaping the country. Washington established a "Royal American Cabinet" that included a series of Secretaries ranging from War, Treasury, even State. In 1790, he formally authorized the establishment and funding of a military academy at Fort Clinton, this academy would be christened the Royal American Military Academy (RAMA) and would have a curriculum focused on mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering, history, physical geography , philosophy, leadership including horsemanship together exercise. The following year, he would found the Royal American Naval Academy (RANA) in Annapolis, which would fulfill the same function as the RAMA but oriented to the navy. The first Director of the Academy would be John Paul Jones known as the "Father of the Royal American Navy". George Washington proved to be a capable administrator and a judge of talent and character, speaking regularly to department heads to get their advice. At Hamilton's suggestion, he improved or established a number of sources of revenue for the national government, such as royalties, excises, canal and highway tolls, shipping fees, and others. All attractive as "indirect" taxes versus direct taxes, such as property or income taxes. This would be followed by the implementation of a series of moderate tariffs on imported goods, particularly those from Great Britain.
Products that were flooding American markets, to serve both to protect burgeoning American industry from unfair competition and to increase government revenue. The funds obtained would be reinvested in industrial subsidies to grow US manufacturing and also to build internal improvements such as canals and highways to improve trade between the states. A third initiative was the sale of much land in the Northwest Territory to interested citizens who allowed the colonization of the same territory. These economic measures would have a tremendous impact on the economy and politics of the Kingdom of America. However, Washington had to face the problem of Slavery, which had been in progress since before the Revolution first by the Quakers and then by the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage abbreviated as the Pennsylvania Abolition Society. The Society came into conflict with the senators from the south, who blocked any attempt to abolish an institution that was important to their plantation economy. After a contentious debate, Senate leaders shelved the proposals without a vote, setting a precedent in which the Senate generally avoids discussing slavery. That didn't stop Washington from passing two slave-related laws, though: the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793; which made it a Royal offense to assist an escaped slave, and established the legal system by which escaped slaves would be returned to their masters, while the Slave Trade Act of 1794, which limited the Kingdom of America's participation in the transport of slaves by imposing quotas on the export of slaves from the country.
The first military action that the Kingdom of America would do would be the Tripolitan Intervention. An attempt by America, with the aim of ending Barbary piracy protected by the Barbary States who demanded a tribute per ship to guarantee immunity against pirate attacks, which they themselves sponsored. These pirate attacks, dating back to the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, were only reduced when the Spanish Emperors undertook cleansing and pacification campaigns that in themselves were more religious genocide and destruction than anything else. With the change of the Spanish dynasty, Spanish attention shifted away from that front and quickly the Muslim rulers of Tripoli and other regions made the capture of merchant ships and the enslavement or ransom of their crews a very lucrative method of gain wealth and naval power. The Trinitarian Order, founded in France together with the Mercedarian Order in Spain, revived their special mission of raising and disbursing funds for the relief and rescue of prisoners from Mediterranean pirates. However, Barbary corsairs led attacks on the Royal American Merchant Navy in an attempt to extort ransom for the lives of captured sailors and ultimately tribute from the Kingdom of America to prevent further attacks, as they did with various states. The situation worsened on July 25, 1788 with the capture of the schooner Maria and the Dauphin. The Tripoli Regency would demand $700,000 for each ship and crew, unfortunately the American envoys were only given a budget of $40,000 to achieve peace. Diplomatic talks to arrive at a reasonable sum for tribute or for the ransom of captured sailors struggled to advance. The crews of the Maria and Dauphin remained enslaved for over a decade, soon joining the crews of other ships captured by the Barbary states.
In 1795, Tripoli had about 115 American sailors plus 200 retained civilian citizens, including the prosperous Bostonian merchant Ann Bent. Despite the fact that captivity in Tripoli was a form of slavery, prisoners could become rich and achieve a status higher than that of a slave. The proof was John Lawrance Simmons, who rose to the highest position a Christian slave could achieve in Tripoli, becoming counselor to the bey (governor). Even so, most of the captives were forced to perform forced labor in the service of the Barbary pirates and in extreme conditions that exposed them to parasites and diseases, even Ann Bent was placed in the Bey's harem while pregnant. When news of the captivity reached America, the Americans lobbied for direct action by the government to end piracy against Kingdom of America ships. The first test as monarch for George Washington was set: He in response argued that the job of the American Royal Fleet was to protect our commerce and punish the insolence of any attacker, by sinking, burning, or destroying his ships and vessels wherever they were found. Faced with the refusal to pay, the pasha declared war on the Kingdom of America, not through formal written documents, but in the usual Barbary manner of cutting down the flag pole in front of the Consulate of the Kingdom of America. Before learning that Tripoli had declared war on America, Washington sent a small squad. composed of three frigates and a schooner, under the command of Commodore Richard Dale. He carried presents and letters to try to keep peace with the Barbary powers. However, in the event that war had been declared, Dale was instructed to "protect American ships and citizens from possible aggression."
The Royal American Navy was not challenged at sea, but still, deploying many of the navy's best ships to the region throughout 1796. RAS Argus, RAS Chesapeake, RAS Constellation, RAS Constitution, RAS Enterprise, RAS Intrepid, RAS Philadelphia, RAS Vixen, RAS Monarch, RAS Congress, RAS Essex, RAS John Adams, RAS Nautilus. Throughout 1796, he established and maintained a blockade of the Barbary ports and carried out a campaign of raids and attacks against the fleets of the cities. The turning point in the war was the Battle of Derna where former consul William Eaton, a former army captain who used the title "general", and American Royal Marine Corps (ARMC) 1st Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon They led a force of eight US Marines and five hundred Spanish mercenaries on a march across the desert from Tunis to capture the Tripolitan city of Derna. This was the first time the Royal American flag had been flown in victory on foreign soil. The action would be commemorated in a line from the Marines' Hymn: "the shores of Tripoli". The capture of the city gave American negotiators leverage to ensure the return of the hostages and the end of the war. Tired of the blockade and raids, and now under threat of a continued advance on Tripoli proper, the Bey signed a treaty ending hostilities. In agreeing to pay a $60,000 ransom for American prisoners, the government made a distinction between paying tribute and paying ransom. At the time, some argued that buying sailors from slavery was a fair trade to end the war. Emissary William Eaton, diplomat Tobias Lear and others felt that Derna's capture should have been used as a bargaining chip to obtain the release of all American prisoners without having to pay a ransom. The First Barbary War was beneficial to the reputation of the Royal American military command and warfare mechanism, which until then had been relatively untested. The First Barbary War demonstrated that the Kingdom of America could wage a war far from home, and that American forces had the cohesion to fight together as Americans rather than separately as Georgians, New Yorkers, etc.
Perhaps one of the most outstanding events that would mark the Reign of George Washington, would be the creation of the Premier Grand Lodge of America. Masonic lodges were a phenomenon that emerged in the early 17th century. Originally made up of guilds and associations of working stonemasons, they soon became somewhat aristocratic like the Anglo-American lodges focused on the monarchy, aristocracy and the church. George Washington would have been a Mason since 1752 when he was initiated into the Fredericksburg Lodge. These lodges were indirectly connected to attached regiments of the British Army and later to patriotic groups and figures such as Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, even James Monroe. These Lodges served to form a commitment to support each other and provide sanctuary for fellow Masons if necessary. The group's long-term brotherhood and secrecy served as a vehicle of exclusion, preventing British spies from delving into their networks. But Freemasonry did not end with the Revolution. George Washington knew that the lodges of Maryland, New York, New Jersey, and Boston, as they continued their social gatherings, networking, and opportunities for charity, would shake hands under the table and praise secret symbols. Which from the outside would not be seen in such an inoffensive way. Therefore, Washington decided to form the Premier Grand Lodge of America, a way to control Freemasonry in America and avoid the threat of a civil war motivated by the Lodges. However, perhaps the most contentious point that arose at the beginning were his theological views that clashed with Catholicism or Lutheranism. These facts would motivate the most radical or adventurous Freemasons not to be afraid to participate in controversial foreign adventures such as an attempted uprising in Louisiana or in the Spanish Caribbean.
On July 16, 1790, the city of Washington DC was established in the Constitution of the Kingdom of America to serve as the nation's capital. Washington, DC, formally the District of Columbia, also known simply as Washington or just DC. DC was built by choice of George Washington along the Potomac and Anacosti rivers, on land ceded by Maryland and Virginia to differentiate and distinguish itself from the rest of the states. The geographical position of the capital was linked to the controversy that Alexander Hamilton and the northern states wanted the new government to assume the debts of the Revolutionary War, and Thomas Jefferson and the southern states that they wanted the capital to be located in a location friendly to slave-owning agricultural interests. The District included two pre-existing settlements in the territory: the port city of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, and the port city of Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749. The port city of Alexandria and its surrounding area were notable for having property owned by George Washington and his family, including Mount Vernon, Washington's personal home and plantation, were only seven miles from Washington DC. With the site selected, Washington appointed Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant in early 1791, charged with laying out a plan for the new city on an area of land in the center of the territory that lies between the northeast bank of the Potomac River and the northwest bank of the East Branch of the Potomac. L'Enfant would work on the so-called "Plan of the city destined to the permanent seat of the government of the Kingdom of America..." where the layout of the city would be centered on a grid system, in which the center would be the building of the Capitol. L'Enfant would present a vision of a bold modern city with grand boulevards and ceremonial spaces reminiscent of another great world capital: Imperial Rome.
When the plan came into use, it underwent minor changes to the city layout with the approval of L'Enfant, who allowed the straightening of the longest avenues and the removal of Place No. 15 from L'Enfant's original plan. child In L'Enfant's plan and which was maintained, there was a landscaped esplanade 122 meters wide, which was to run approximately 1.6 km on an east-west axis in the center of an area. A narrower avenue was designed to connect the "house of Congress" (the Capitol) with the "house of the King" (the White House). However, America had to face the Western Confederacy created to defend against the United States and then the Kingdom of America. The confederation was a loose association of mainly Algonquian-speaking tribes in the Great Lakes area. The Wyandots (Hurons) were the nominal fathers, or the main tribe guaranteeing confederacy, but the Shawnees and Miamis provided the bulk of the fighting forces. Other tribes in the confederation included the Delaware Confederacy (Lenape), Council of Three Fires (Ojibwes, Odawas, and Potawatomis), Kickapoos, Kaskaskias, and Wabashs (Weas, Piankashaws, and others). In most cases, an entire tribe was not involved in the war; Indian societies were generally not centralized. Individual villages and warriors and chiefs decided on participation in the war. About 200 Cherokee warriors from two bands from the Overmountain towns fought alongside the Shawnees from the start of the Revolution through the years of the Indian Confederacy. In addition, the Cherokee leader of Chickamauga (Lower Town), Dragging Canoe, sent a contingent of warriors for a specific action. Some warriors from the southeastern Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, who had been traditional enemies of the northwestern tribes, served as scouts for the United States during those years, but that changed with the end.
Still opposed to the Kingdom of America, some British agents in the region sold arms and ammunition to the Indians and encouraged attacks on American settlers. Alexander McKee, a British agent born to a Shawnee mother, was a central figure in the confederation. He worked to unite the various Native American nations and bands in the region, but also represented the interests of Great Britain. British Lieutenant Governor John Simcoe, a veteran of the US Revolutionary War, was delighted with the failures of the United States and hoped for British participation in the creation of a neutral buffer state between America and Canada. In 1793, however, Simcoe abruptly changed policy and sought peace with the Kingdom of America to avoid opening a new front in the French Revolutionary Wars. Simcoe treated Kingdom of America Commissioners Benjamin Lincoln, Beverly Randolph, and Timothy Pickering cordially when they arrived at Niagara in May 1793, seeking an escort across the Great Lakes to avoid the fate of John Hardin and Alexander Truman in 1792. War parties launched a series of isolated raids in the mid-1780s, resulting in increased bloodshed and mistrust. In April 1786, a militia from Vincennes attacked a village on the Embarras River, forcing the Piankeshaws to move away and consolidate near the Vermilion River. Over 400 Piankeshaws and Weas returned with a war party in July, but were persuaded not to attack Vincennes. That fall, Generals George Rogers Clark and Benjamin Logan led two columns of Kentucky militia in punitive raids against Native American villages north of the Ohio River. Clark's force, considered the main column, left in September and marched north along the Wabash River into the Illinois country.
He was hampered by logistical problems caused by the scarcity of water in the river, and when he reached the mouth of the Vermilion River in October, he was faced with a mutiny and mass desertion. Clark returned with the remnants of his force to Vincennes, his reputation in ruins. Meanwhile, General Logan recruited and trained for his secondary column of Federal soldiers and mounted Kentucky militia against various Shawnee towns along the Mad River. The Shawnee nation was divided in its response to settlers from the Kingdom of America, but the Kentucky settlers made no distinction between hostile and friendly villages. Shawnee villages along the Crazy River were defended mainly by noncombatants while warriors hunted or raided forts in Kentucky. Logan burned the native towns and food supplies, and killed or captured numerous natives. Against Logan's orders, Captain Hugh McGary assassinated an elderly Shawnee chief named Moluntha, who was considered a friend of the Kingdom of America and had even raised a striped flag to welcome Logan's men. Logan continued to 7 other villages, killing, torturing, raping, or capturing dozens of villagers, including women and children. The militia also looted his property and burned his crops before returning to Kentucky. Logan's raid devastated the Shawnee nation, whose survivors fought that winter over destroyed crops, but also united the Shawnees against the Americans. Reports of the Logan Raid alarmed the Confederate council in Detroit in November, and Shawnee raids into Kentucky were reported in December 1786. Native American raids on both sides of the Ohio River resulted in increased casualties. . In the mid-to-late 1780s, American settlers south of the Ohio River in Kentucky and travelers north of the Ohio River suffered approximately 1,500 casualties. The settlers retaliated with attacks on Indians.
In 1789, the new Secretary of War for the newborn Kingdom of America, Henry Knox, argued that Congress had provoked Native Americans by claiming possession of their territories. The following year, the new king of America, George Washington, and Secretary of War Henry Knox, ordered General Josiah Harmar to launch a campaign, a major Western offensive into the country of the Shawnees and Miami. General Harmar's ultimate goal was Kekionga, a large Native American city that was important to the British commercial economy, protecting a strategic port between the Great Lakes Basin and the Mississippi Basin. Washington had, as early as 1784, told Henry Knox that a strong American post should be established at Kekionga. However, Knox was concerned that an American fort at Kekionga would provoke the Indians, and denied Saint-Clair's request to build a fort there. Saint-Clair, in 1790, had told Washington and Knox that "we shall never have peace with the Western Nations until we have a garrison there." Western native leaders, meanwhile, met at Kekionga to determine a response to the Harmar Fort Treaty. Harmar's reputation had preceded him, so many of the Kentucky and Pennsylvania militiamen were "substitutes" (men paid to take the place of the men they were called to serve). Many of the experienced Indian fighters did not want to serve under Harmar in the state militias, they were paid $3 a day, leading Warner to point out that for a typical farmer; this would mean neglecting his farm and leaving his family and friends behind him to go on a dangerous mission in the northwest frontier for 60 days, during which time he would earn a total of $60 for his troubles.
Most farmers would not go voluntarily if called, and when called would hire substitutes, who came from the lower elements of American society in their stead. Warner wrote that US Army soldiers were recruited from the lowest elements of American society, but they served long term and were well trained. By contrast, Harmar had only two weeks to train his Kentucky militia and only a few days to train the Pennsylvania militia before he set out on October 1, 1790. Harmar managed to muster 1,300 militiamen and 353 regulars to loot and destroy. Kekionga (present-day Fort Wayne, Indiana), the capital of the Miami Indians, while the Kentucky militia under the command of Major Jean François Hamtramck would create a diversion by burning villages on the Wabash River. Before leaving on his expedition, Harmar was faced with disputes among the various militia commanders over who should command whom, with Colonel James Trotter and Colonel John Hardin of the Kentucky militia openly feuding with each other. Shortly before the expedition began in September 1790, Knox sent Harmar a letter accusing him of alcoholism. Harmar, who was heavily influenced by the Blue Book for Prussian-style troop training, marched his men in a formation that would have been appropriate for Central Europe or the Atlantic coast of the American kingdom, but not in the wilds of the Northwest. This led to his men becoming bogged down, averaging about 10 miles a day. Harmar had hoped to reach Kekionga to capture the British and French-Canadian fur traders, whom he called the true villains of the war because they provided the Miamis with arms and ammunition, but his slow progress prevented that. To Harmar's surprise, Little Turtle chief of the miamis refused to fight, preferring to retreat and burn his villages.
On October 19, a scouting party of about 400 mixed forces under the command of Colonel John Hardin was lured into an ambush near the village of Le Gris, losing 129 soldiers in one of two defeats that has been dubbed Hardin's Defeat. The next day, another scouting party under Ensign Phillip Hartshorn was ambushed, but Harmar did not move to help them or recover his remains. Finally, on October 21, 1790, a mixed group of militiamen and regulars under Colonel Hardin established attack positions at Kekionga and waited for reinforcements from General Harmar, who never arrived. Instead, Little Turtle's forces overwhelmed Hardin and forced the American forces to withdraw in the second battle known as Harmar's Defeat. With 3 straight losses, over 300 casualties, and low morale, Harmar withdrew to Fort Washington. Following Harmar's defeat, Knox changed his mind and ordered St. Clair to fortify Kekionga the following year. Because they were both present when Harmar's army arrived, this was the first full military operation shared between Miami leader Little Turtle and Shawnee Blue Jacket leader. It was the largest Native American victory over American forces until the following year, and it emboldened the Native nations within the Northwest Territory. The following January, Indian forces attacked the settlements in the Big Bottom massacre and the Siege of Dunlap Station. Washington ordered Major General Arthur St. Clair, who had been President of Congress when the Northwest Ordinance was passed and was now serving as Governor of the Northwest Territory, to mount a more vigorous effort by the summer of 1791 and build a series of forts along the Maumee River. . The hastily assembled expeditionary force had considerable trouble finding adequate supplies, receiving undamaged materials from Philadelphia, and finding qualified merchants.
After gathering men and supplies, St. Clair was somewhat ready, but the troops had received little training. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel James Wilkinson led raids along the Wabash River, intending to create a diversion that would aid St. Clair's march north. At the Battle of Kenapacomaqua, Wilkinson killed 9 Wea and Miami, and captured 34 Miami as prisoners, including a daughter of Miami war chief Little Turtle. Her daughter who died after two months of being beaten and raped by the soldiers who were guarding her who allowed other soldiers and volunteers to take it out on her daughter. Many of the confederate leaders were considering peace terms to present to the Kingdom of America, but when they received news of Wilkinson's raid, they prepared for war. Wilkinson's raid had the opposite effect, rallying the tribes against St. Clair rather than distracting them. During what would be four years from 1791, General Mad Anthony Wayne commanded the American Army, a well-trained and motivated force that, using total war tactics, waged a war that would eventually drive the natives into Canada or beyond the Mississippi.
The French Revolutionary Wars: The Royalists
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
Prepare for another Revolutionary Chapter. This maybe is a bit explicit or cruel even sad... but Dessaline was a monster in my opinion and i don't gonna defend it.
With the death of Louis XVI and the rise of his underage son; Louis XVII. A conflict began that saw almost all the countries of Europe confront Revolutionary France, this only increased political and social tensions in Paris, however the Bourbon royalists located in border territory, were supported by Austrian, Spanish supplies even English. On April 20, 1792, the Assembly voted almost unanimously to declare war on Austrian Emperor Francis II, beginning the First Coalition War. Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duke of Lauzun, and Duke of Biron, known as Biron and who was deputy to the Estates General by the nobility of the seneschalty of Quercy and was affiliated with the revolutionary cause, was sent by the Constituent National Assembly to receive the Army of Flanders oath, and was subsequently appointed to its command. The army of Flanders had 20,000 troops and had the mission of monitoring the Austrian armies, along with the army of the North under Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Count of Rochambeau. They decided to carry out a force reconnaissance in the direction of Mons and in the direction of Tournai. One commanded by Biron himself and the other by Marshal Théobald Dillon, Count of Dillon, an Irishman in the service of France, in the Army of the North under the command of Rochambeau. Dillón left Lille meeting in Baisieux, the first town of Hainaut, the Austrian major-general Louis-François de Civalart, the Count of Haponponrt, who was camping on the heights of Marquain with 3,000 men. Imperial scouts attacked the French vanguard quite heavily, indicating that the general wanted a pitched battle. However, Dillon had been ordered to avoid any confrontation. Seeing the enemy advancing against him, Dillon gave the order to withdraw to Baisieux in accordance with the orders received to avoid confrontation.
Some signs of insubordination that had appeared among his soldiers since his departure from Lille, showing that he had little confidence in them. Some protested that they had not fired a single shot. In the first retrograde movement made by the French, they were pursued by the Austrian colonel, Baron de Vogelsang, who had 3 guns, who opened fire at a great distance, the shots not even reaching the last of Dillon's army. However, the distrust of the soldiers towards their aristocratic generals and the fear caused the horsemen who were marching in the rear to panic, causing them to rout shouting "Every man for himself, we are betrayed". This movement and the shouts spread the confusion among the infantry troops, who joined the flight, abandoning the 4 cannons. Ammunition wagons and baggage wagons were also abandoned by the carters, who mounted their horses and fled. The entire army joined the rush to the road, fleeing towards Baisieux. General Theobald Dillon tried in vain to round up the fugitives before the enemy caught up with them. Turbulent shouts and insults were uttered against the general who was hit by a pistol shot from one of his soldiers. It was then that the Imperials emerged. In the general alarm, the panic of the completely disorganized troops who crossed Baisieux and continued to flee headlong towards Lille. As soon as they reached the city, a considerable gathering of soldiers from the different regiments that make up the garrison formed at the Porte de Fives. Colonel of Engineers Pierre-François Berthois, M. de La Rousselière, Dillon's second in command, was arrested by soldiers in a blind rage, who hung him on one of the battlements of the place and then dismembered, and also cut the throat of 3 or 4 enemy prisoners.
The wounded General Dillon, returning wounded in a wagon, was slaughtered with bayonets. The soldiers then ripped his body from the car, dragging it through the streets to the Grand Place where they threw him into a bonfire. Arthur Dillon, brother of Théobald Dillon, lodged a complaint with the Assembly. However, the murderers were not identified and therefore punished, however the general's widow obtained a pension to raise her children. For his part, the Marquis de Biron carried out the reconnaissance in force in the direction of Mons. On April 28, Biron set out in 3 columns, he commanded the central one, Serignan the right and Crespin the left, they arrived at Quiévrain, just on the other side of the Franco-Belgian border, there they faced Austrian forces under the command of the Austrian Field Marshal Baron de Beaulieu, attacking the Austrian forces that were in the city, who were surrounded and fled, they took 100 prisoners, 6 guns and 7 ammunition wagons. The French encamped in the city and Biron exalted by the success and planned to take the city of Mons and eventually Brussels. The next day, he continued advancing in 3 columns, leaving 1 volunteer battalion at Quiévrain. On April 29, the French forces approached Mons, where Marshal Beaulieu was waiting for them with some 3,000 troops and 10 cannons entrenched on the heights of Bertaimont. An exchange of artillery fire and reconnaissance attacks ensued to discover the Austrian forces, and Biron judged that his forces were not strong enough and decided to withdraw. He being pursued by 500 hunters on foot and on horseback. On April 30, when his troops were passing through Quiévrain again, about 30 men were shot down by enemy hunters, a false alarm of an Austrian attack caused the soldiers to panic and they fled to Valenciennes in disorder. These two actions were the first clashes in the First Coalition War, and highlighted the lack of discipline of the French Revolutionary Army.
By 1792, Revolutionary France was not prepared for war, the treasury was empty, chaos reigned in the army, and the people suffered a fit of collective hysteria. The rumor spread that the chiefs of the army of aristocratic origin were in cahoots with the enemy, and on May 29 the dissolution of the Royal Guard was decreed. On June 8, the recruitment of 20,000 national guards was approved, which would converge in Paris on July 14, to commemorate the storming of the Bastille. In the first days of July, the allied armies were concentrated on the borders of France, the external threat united all the political forces and on July 11 the Legislative Assembly decreed the general mobilization, an appeal was made to all the French with the phrase: "Citizens, the homeland is in danger!". The following day a decree was issued to create new battalions which was read in all the squares of France. Solemnly in Paris 15,000 volunteers presented themselves. Such a decree unleashed a campaign of agitation that focused its attacks against the monarchy and the aristocracy. In the midst of this state of agitation, on July 25, the Duke of Brunswick, head of the Allied army, issued a manifesto, drawn up by an émigré absolutist French nobleman, in which he threatened to kill all National Guardsmen who defended Paris or took reprisals against the royal family. Its diffusion in France contributed to exalt the popular movement to the point that many Royal Guards would end up fleeing to Montemedy to form part of the Garde du Corps, who would stand out for their icy ferocity in combat, becoming known as the "Frères de Saint Louis". Waving a white flag with the red fleur-de-lys emblazoned on it, the mere rumor that the Garde were in the area was enough to unsettle the bravest of revolutionaries.
The rumor that spread through Paris that the King had died and sentenced any Revolutionary to death, accelerated the plans for the insurrection. The initiative was taken by the cordeliers, the heads of the federated national guards and the leaders of the Parisian sections where the sans-culottes predominated, who since July 26 had formed a kind of committee that would meet again on July 4 and 9. August. This last day it was decided to start the insurrection, after learning that the Legislative Assembly had rejected the request of the sections for the dethronement of the King. At dawn on August 10, two columns of federated national guards and sans-culottes set out for the Tuileries. The first with some 5,000 troops came from the left bank of the Seine and the second of about 15,000 troops, under the command of the wealthy brewer Antoine-Joseph Santerre, from the eastern sections of the capital, the number increasing as they advanced. At that time, the defense of the royal palace was already organized by some 800 Swiss guards, who had been joined by more than a thousand national guards loyal to the Legislative Assembly and a few hundred volunteers from the old Royal Guard who did not flee to Montmedy. The artillerymen were positioned on Pont-Neuf (New Bridge) with the instructions of the department to prevent the union of these columns, but Manuel, the city secretary, asked them to withdraw and passage was then authorized. The loyal forces seemed sufficient to face the 20,000 men that the two columns of insurgents added up, but the arrest of their leader, the Marquis de Mandat at 07:00 hours by the insurgent Commune proclaimed by the rebels, deprived them of a unified command, which would prove fatal. The Swiss guards and the volunteers defending the Tuileries refused to surrender despite the fact that the King and the royal family were no longer in the palace, so the fighting began.
The Swiss guards killed several hundred rebels, when they tried to flee through the gardens they were mowed down by the insurgent forces, the wounded were finished off with bayonets and pikes, and only about 150 managed to reach the Assembly. When the insurgents entered the palace, they murdered the servants, considering them traitors, and then cut off some heads from the corpses and displayed them on their pikes. Some 60 Swiss City Hall prisoners were massacred there. Others would die in prison as a result of their injuries. As a transitional government and in agreement with the insurgent Commune, a Provisional Executive Council was set up, made up of the former Girondin ministers and the cordelier Georges Danton, who held the portfolio of Justice. An extraordinary court was also formed, likewise at the request of the insurgent Commune, which would be in charge of judging the crimes of the court. On August 17, General Lafayette criticized the growing influence of the radicals, writing a letter to the Assembly from his post, ending the letter by demanding that these parties be "shut down by force." He was wrong for the moment, since the radicals totally controlled Paris. Lafayette went there, and on June 28 he gave a fiery speech before the Assembly denouncing the Jacobins and other radical groups. In his place, he was accused of deserting his troops. Lafayette appealed for volunteers to fight the Jacobins; when very few people showed up, he finally understood the mood of the public and left Paris in a hurry. Robespierre called him a traitor and the mob attacked and burned his effigy. Lafayette was imprisoned by the royalists near Sedan, when they recognized the famous Lafayette. Although Louis and Marie Antoinette had ever met Lafayette, it had been before the French Revolution. The king now saw him as a dangerous promoter of rebellion, so he decides to imprison him to prevent him from overthrowing other monarchs.
In the midst of the chaos, the greatest danger resided in the Revolutionary Army, which had 82,000 troops, not counting the border garrisons. However, Lafayette, who was in Sedan, learned of the storming of the Tuileries and ordered General Arthur Dillón (cousin of Théobald Dillon), who was in Pont-sur-Sambre, and General Charles François Dumouriez, who was in the maulde field. , march on Paris. The first, who was a royalist, accepted, the second, who was a friend of the Girondins, refused to obey. Learning of the mutiny, the Assembly sent commissars to Sedań unaware that it was in royalist hands, but they were taken prisoner and imprisoned on Dillon's orders. Others were dispatched on August 18, giving Dumouriez command of the army of the North. At the same time, Luckner, who was in Metz and a friend of Lafayette's, also refused to accept the decree, receiving a visit from various commissars with orders to replace him with General François Christophe Kellermann and send him to Châlons to take charge of the troops. second line. However, one of Luckner's senior officers executed the commissars before shouting "We are soldiers of the King of France. And the King of France needs us where he needs us to be." Such a situation caused 17,000 men occupying the section between Montmédy and the Vosges to go into royal service while Dillon commanded 16,000 men and did the same. In total, the royalists had 43,000 soldiers spread out along the border. These forces supported the invasion of the allied forces formed by 3 armies. The problem in the allied army was the difference in criteria between King Frederick William and the Duke of Brunswick. The king sympathized with the allies, including the situation of the young King Louis XVII, while the duke hated them. As for the strategy, the King was in favor of going directly to Paris, where the people would receive their king with open arms, while Brunswick was in favor of capturing the border fortresses in that campaign, where he would establish warehouses and winter , getting ready. the bell. for the following year. He dreaded the idea of marching into France in the fall, leaving behind unconquered strongholds.
The German writer and thinker Johann Wolfgang von Goethe would accompany the allied army at the invitation of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who commanded a regiment of Prussian cuirassiers. On August 12 at dawn, Prussian light troops reached French territory. On August 15, the Prussian army arrives at the camp between Sierck and Luxembourg, and General Clairfayt, leading the Austrians, establishes contact with the French royalist forces, which allows them to have a core of troops that know the terrain. With the capitulation of the fortress of Verdun, which had previously been in revolutionary hands on September 2, the road to Paris was opened. Some ministers began to think of leaving the capital on the same day, but Danton launched into the Assembly: "To defeat you, gentlemen, we need boldness, still boldness, always boldness, and France is saved." The allies to go to Paris had to take Reims, which was a formidable revolutionary stronghold and was one of the most important cities in France. The city was surrounded by a wall, and the River Vesle flowed through the city from southeast to northwest. On September 10, the allied army began the movement, and established the camp in sight of Reims, which they called Drecklager (field of filth). The allies reconnoitred the French positions, which they considered too strong for a frontal attack. What caused the Allied artillery to start a bombardment aimed at weakening the revolutionary defensive lines during several hours of bombardment. The intensity of the bombardment caused the revolutionary French troops to enter the walls in a panic.
The Allied army squandered the opportunity and did not attack, allowing the revolutionary commanders to restore order while the Allied regiments, led by the French royalists, began to advance. Advancing blindly through the mist on the cold morning of September 20, without the mist, it would have been easy to see the defensive advantages of the site but the allied troops were unaware of the state of the defenses, as the allied troops advanced they ran into a small force revolutionary who occupied a farm but who were driven out when the Prussian hussars took care of them. Through a quick interrogation, the hussars discovered that the defensive lines had been pushed back to the walls, so through a corridor with the information, the rest of the allied troops advanced more motivated, some for the desire to take revenge and others for possible looting. . However, when the fog lifted the revolutionary defenders saw how the allied formations were advancing in closed columns. When General Dumouriez saw them, he put his cap on the point of his saber and began to shout "Long live the nation!" His soldiers imitated him and put their caps on the points of their bayonets and shouted "Long live the nation, live France, live our general! a clamor that lasted several minutes from the walls. This was followed by an artillery attack that would last for several hours, the enemies were separated by a distance of 1,000 meters, a long distance for the guns of the time, also the clayey ground was so soaked that the projectiles did not ricochet, but instead they were buried in it. Allied soldiers and officers were forced to crouch and seek cover as cannonballs passed their sides causing several officers to be killed or seriously wounded. The Revolutionary artillery fired about 20,000 shots to the point that the cannons overheated. Seeing the situation, Dumouriez came to the conclusion that he could only do one thing: counterattack.
Accumulating first the cavalry and then the regular infantry and finally the volunteers. While the fire and smoke from the cannons hid the movements near the gates, the revolutionary troops moved into position armed with their muskets and in some cases with sabers and lances. A thick cloud of smoke covered the outer field as the French artillerymen ceased firing, Brunswick and his staff seeing the cessation of artillery as a good time to launch an attack, and the Duke sent his infantry forward. They advanced several hundred meters, when they began to hear "vive la France" while they saw rows of regular infantry uniformed in white together with volunteer militias in blue with the revolutionary cavalry ready to charge. Allied and royalist officers identified the regulars as professional troops of the old royal army and were not mere peasants with no military experience. In view of the situation, Brunswick turned to those around him and said "Gentlemen, you see what kind of troops we have to face, those French only wait for us to advance to charge against us." He decided to hold a council of war in which he said "We must not attack here", and added "the assault will possibly fail and in case of success we would get little with it" the duke told his staff. King Frederick William did not object. "The Cry of Reims" became a legendary moment in French history. The soldiers would fight not for the king, but for his nation. Although their battle was successful, Dumouriez agreed that his situation was dangerous. The next day, a messenger went to Paris to request more reinforcements and ammunition. Allied troops instead intercepted herds of cattle and supply wagons. Meanwhile, the peasantry resisted helping the invaders. The Prussian deserters informed the French that they had been reduced to eating dead horses.
Far more deadly than French weapons were the invisible pathogens that spread dysentery through coalition forces. The deadly outbreak of what the French called la couree Prussienne was serious enough to earn a place in the medical literature of the 19th century. Of course, the role of microbes in causing disease was unknown, and this epidemic during the Reims campaign was often blamed on soldiers eating immature grapes and potatoes. To no avail, army surgeons treated patients by bleeding them or dosing them with rhubarb, ipecac, or even lemonade. Approximately 12,000 of the allied army of 42,000 men came down with dysentery, and a large part of them died. On September 25, General Veneur was taken prisoner during a French raid. At the personal request of Federico Guillermo II he was released, Dumouriez took the opportunity to send a memorandum to the King, stating the reasons for ending the war, he also sent coffee and sugar, knowing that he lacked them. Brunswick was quick to embrace the idea, upon receiving disturbing news from Poland. On September 27 he received a second memorandum on the separation of Prussia from Austria, which was rejected by the King. On the night of September 30 to October 1, Brunswick broke camp at the Lune and deftly withdrew his army to the bank of the Meuse, apparently Dumouriez let them pass by the Argonne. In early October the Prussians abandoned Verdun. Dysentery and long and insecure supply lines finally induced the coalition army to abandon France entirely on 23 October. The government in Paris appointed Dumourietz commander-in-chief of the French armies, and authorized him to carry out his plan to conquer the Austrian Netherlands. On November 6, the forces under his command defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Jemappes.
Instead, the royalists embarked in the Austrian Netherlands bound for Saint-Domingue; the richest French colony in the Americas thanks to the immense profits generated by slave labor in the sugar and indigo industries. The arrival of the royalists was a break in the dreams of the rich criollo landowners who wanted to take control of the island and create favorable trade regulations to promote their own wealth and power and restore the social and political equality granted to the criollos. Dominicans. Louis XVII's young age and his dependence on his mother made Creole aristocrats such as Vincent Ogé, Jean-Baptiste Chavannes and the former governor of Saint-Domingue Guillaume de Bellecombe try to give them superior interests, but the superiority of Marie Antoinette and the ignorance of Louis XVII was not at all pleasant for the Creoles who had to face an even more violent uprising by the Maroon communities made up of thousands of slaves who escaped into the mountains and then raided isolated plantations to free family and friends. However, the situation became so difficult that when representatives of the National Republican Assembly from Paris secretly arrived in Saint-Domingue, it was not difficult for them to unleash several riots to wrest control of Saint-Domingue from the royal government. By then Louis XVII was ten years old and his mother was the one who actually ruled Saint-Domingue at the time that thanks to the help of royalist sympathizers, they managed to escape with a part of the French treasury that allowed them to maintain their wealthy lifestyle even build in Port-au-Prince, a palace from which he gave lavish parties in this Palace that drew the attention of the world, however the slave rebellions continued and the Queen would end up indirectly promoting slavery by allowing Spanish merchants dedicated to trade of slaves made a fortune.
However, the Metropolitan Revolutionary support for the Creole rebels led to the start of a winter-spring offensive in the northern province on January 30, 1796, where eighty-thousand rebel slaves and revolutionary sympathizers were secretly trained in the jungles and jungles of the mountains. The Campaign of 1796 was led by Toussaint Louverture, Benoit Joseph André Rigaud however it was Louverture's protégé Jean-Jacques Dessalines who would lead the charge, gaining a reputation for his "take no prisoners" policy and for burning houses and entire villages. down to the foundations. Dessalines applied the tactics to defeat the French ordered by Toussaint where he applied a Total War including Scorched Earth, Dessalines becoming famous for his orders that all Europeans almost without exception be shot. Such measures, though, would raise problems between Toussaint and Dessalines, but the effectiveness would be quite high to the point that many Europeans would flee the country, even leaving the royalist side to flee to Revolutionary France. In view of the success achieved by the revolution, England from Halifax sent a fleet led by the 64-gun flagship HMS Europa (under the command of Captain George Gregory), and made up of the captured French 14-gun sloop Goéland (commander Thomas Wolley ) and the schooner Flying Fish (Lieutenant Colonel John Whitelocke); He arrived ten days later without meeting resistance with the intention of supporting the French Royalists. The arrival of the British saw how in the first two months they lost 40 officers and 600 men in the campaign, their troops being reduced to 828 soldiers, most of them sick with tropical diseases. Worse, the neutral inhabitants of Saint-Domingue (whites, mulattoes and blacks) refused to join their ranks. While Louverture quickly takes control of an important territory in the north zone.
At Christmas the British are forced to withdraw when their open sympathy for blacks caused them to be viewed with suspicion by the French royalists. However, the British ended up relegated to providing financial and military support in the form of supplies such as guns and gunpowder along with food. British support, on the other hand, only hindered the royalist defense, which was further weakened when the last companies of royalist professional and veteran troops were defeated by Dessalines, who through meticulous and well-executed planning, managed to get rebel troops to begin infiltrating the slaves. and blacks freed in the royalists to later attack key buildings such as barracks, command posts, even minor fortifications and weapons stores with the so-called Slave Granades; glass bottles filled with a flammable substance such as lamp fuel, alcohol, or a similar mixture and an ignition source, such as a burning cloth wick, held by the bottle stopper. Such weapons were effective because the abundance of liquor was remarkable and they could be created anywhere in less than five minutes, in the end even the areas considered safe were also attacked. It is estimated that in Port-Au-Prince, slaves fed up with the white yoke ended up setting fire to fourteen mansions and in the resulting riots, a company from Gardes was shot while the Royal Palace where Louis XVII lived and his mother Marie Antoinette received the impact of several Slave Grenades that luckily did not cause great damage. The Port-Au-Prince riots saw rebel guerrillas and slaves entrenched in seized and fortified houses and buildings while facing the royalist counter-attack with all weapons at their disposal. The threat of an uprising in the capital much like Paris saw the defenses on the front line weaken allowing Toussaint to give Dessalines the authority to advance.
Almost like a tidal wave, Dessalines advanced with all the forces under his command, forcing the royalists to mobilize all available forces to combat the Dessalines offensive, although the royalist troops fell back, they did so at an immense price of destruction. The regular soldiers of Dessalines forged a legendary reputation that came to receive the Nsumbi (Voodoo Demon) because they fought without the possibility of withdrawal or surrender, refusing to be helped or replaced by new units. Something the Royalists couldn't do either. The fighting was very hard and the destruction suffered by the cities due to the use of artillery and incendiary weapons was very great, but perhaps the most outstanding thing was the use of the machete as a melee weapon. The machete, often used to cut rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (cutting sugar cane, for example), became the most iconic tool and weapon of the Revolution to the point that the most dramatic example of its use was with the Battle of Ile de La Gonâve when Toussaint ordered to take the island and five thousand Nsumbi in rafts and canoes crossed the strait to land on the island that was garrisoned by the Corps royal d'infanterie de la marine (royal infantry corps of the navy). The royal infantry corps fought against the rebels until they ran out of ammunition and then they began to use their bayonets or tools such as axes or swords, however 152 royalist soldiers would end up surrendering to the Nsumbi forces however this surrender was denied when the Nsumbi ended up beheading to the royalists and sent the oldest ships to Port-Au-Prince loaded with gunpowder and with the heads of their soldiers on spears or sharp sticks while their bodies adorned the masks. The fire in Port-Au Prince denied the port's ability to accommodate ships and was a prelude to what would happen if Dessalines arrived.
The horrendous casualties and suffering suffered by the royalist units began to be noticed and many soldiers and nobles ended up starting to desert to Spanish Santo Domingo. In the midst of these events, Toussaint would be betrayed by Dessalines, when Toussaint began to speak with the British to allow the withdrawal of the French Royal Family, however Dessalines publicly accused of such an act and Toussaint would end up being arrested and interned in an unknown prison, Toussaint would end up dying of exhaustion from the forced labor he was forced to do, malnutrition due to the scant food and water he could consume, pneumonia due to prison conditions, and possibly tuberculosis. Dessalines assumed command of military operations and due to his reputation he established a despotic regime where the military ruled everything. Seeing the control that the revolutionaries had in Saint-Domingue, Dessalines gave a speech where he demanded "unceasing vigor in the attack to the heart of Port-Au-Prince". On March 9, 1767, Dessaline's forces reached Croix des Bouquets, the last line of defense before Port-Au-Prince, where royalist troops made a last stand and held the city through fierce fighting for 10 days. . By this time, the royalist troops that fought at Croix des Bouquets were undisciplined and had problems with supplies in the face of corruption in the rear. The Royalists finally withdrew from Croix des Bouquets on 19 March after having inflicted heavy losses on Dessalines, the arrival of Royalist troops in the capital looking mostly battered and leaderless, plunging the city into anarchy comparable to the that was in Paris, when there was the storming of the Bastille. Rapid rebel advances raised concerns that the city, which had been fairly peaceful during the war and whose people had endured relatively little suffering except guerrilla bombings, would soon come under direct attack led the more paranoid to prophesy a retaliatory bloodbath. After decades of slavery.
News of Dessaline's troops executing royalist army officers, Roman Catholics, intellectuals, businessmen and other suspected counterrevolutionaries by beheading and other executions. Most of the citizens of other countries allied with Royalist France wanted to evacuate the city before it fell, and many les blancs (plantation owners and a lower class of whites who often served as overseers or laborers, as well as artisans and merchants). ), especially those associated with the royal court or the previous government, also wanted to leave. However, the rebel garrison on Ile de La Gonâve blocked any ship leaving Port-Au-Prince, sinking ships full of innocent people or in some cases boarding them to make five-second trials before issuing their sentence. Ile de La Gonâve stood out for the immense number of deaths where there would be thousands of dead men hanging upside down, drowned in sacks, crucified, buried alive, while to further denigrate the slave-owning white man, the former slaves forced their former owners to consume feces while they were flayed with lashes. While women were subjected to collective rapes where women from twelve years old to old. When a royalist ship of refugees was trapped by the so-called Pirates of La Gonâve, the women tried to commit suicide and also end the lives of their daughters and sons by cutting their wrists, although, of course, they did not know how to do it effectively and in many cases had to ask for help from sailors who did not make sure of their luck and in their last moments of life, the dying women suffered the depravity and desecration of being a toy in cruel hands.
On the afternoon of April 27, Port-Au-Prince began to be hit by Dessalines' artillery, desperate to show that they were the first to attack Port-Au-Prince, so the cannons began to fire at enormous distances and only succeeded. reach only the districts located more to the northeast of the city. The only defenders of the French Monarchy were the Maison Militaire du Roi de France (military household of the king of France) who acted as a bodyguard but was made up of veterans motivated to defend the monarchy. Although there were Royalist detachments motivated by the efforts of a staff officer to impose some semblance of order amid the chaos, Royalist stragglers fell back as fast as possible and in some cases improvised combat units to engage in small combat. although ferocious wherever they were threatened. The retreating royalist forces found, to make matters worse, that all roads were blocked by increasingly terrified refugees. When the so-called Black Riders armed with machetes reached the outskirts of the city, the defensive batteries readied their 8-pounder Gribeauval cannon in order to engage the cavalry. Any kind of counterattack was repulsed and involved a cost of lives, gunpowder and in many cases meters. Motivated by patriotic fervor, at one point the civilians would protect the city but the common vision after a fight was to see how the militiamen bandaged their wounds, provisionally fixed their weapons and clothing and cleaned their weapons, before starting to run to another street or avenue. Tragic scenes occurred when in a field hospital, volunteer nurses from any social stratum: peasants, bourgeois, aristocrats, even nobles and foreigners, tried to save lives. One of the latter found her lover from the Garde du Corps among the seriously wounded who had just entered. She "embraced him, she placed the young man's head on her lap and she remained with him until she died of a serious injury to her skull."
Like all royalists, they had lost their possessions and had just lost the cause for which they fought. This fact, combined with their visceral hatred of the Revolutionaries, made them formidable combatants during the Battle of Port-Au-Prince. For most of the battle, ad-hoc volunteer units defended their combat zones as best they could even looting friendly and enemy corpses alike, treating only their own with respect, but impaling dying enemies for added provocation. The soldiers, who had not received any rations for five days, raided the houses abandoned by their owners. Some were so tired that, after eating what they found, they fell exhausted in any bed with their uniforms still full of dirt. In these cases they plunged into such a deep sleep that they were only awakened by the arrival of the enemy or the appearance of enemies who proceeded to kill them brutally. A courtier of the court who managed to survive until the arrival of the Spanish forces would write: "the children, armed with wooden swords and sticks, with their long legs, their hair cut short on the nape of their necks and their intense bangs, scream, jump, jump and they make gestures of stabbing each other... It is something eternal, which can never be eliminated from the condition of the human being. While their fathers fight with peasants and merchants and their mothers learn how to cut their wrists to avoid being the toy of a black demon, created by his own arrogance and superiority." The constant background noise caused by the artillery barrage tested the nerves of the citizens. They were able to verify that the expression "the thundering of the cannons" was not one of the bombastic commonplaces typical of war, but a completely accurate description. The noise spread and rumbled everywhere—and especially in the backyards of buildings—as if it were a storm.
The last moments of Port-Au-Prince were filled with agony and suffering because Marie Antoinette decided to sacrifice her son, while the fortified exteriors of the Palace were defended by courtiers firing muskets, royal guards with bandaged wounds and drunken women who would rather die fighting than die. commit suicide or even be the toy of what they called "A disgusting Black Monkey". A luck that they would avoid in her favor, but while Marie Antoinette managed to save her son by causing his death and burning her body to avoid desecrating her as they did with Lambelle. Instead, she would be caught up as the rebels stormed in, bathed in French blood, and proceeded to loot the palace. She would be caught by her hair and dragged to a bedroom where she would suffer for hours the fate of being desecrated and humiliated to the point of her mental breakdown. Later, she would walk through the dilapidated streets of Port-Au-Prince dressed as a slave to be presented to the Monster who proceeded to exhibit her as Rome did Vercingetorix and other enemy kings along the avenue of the Eternal City. But Maria did not die peacefully. She would suffer for weeks until a Spanish army led by Federico Carlos Gravina and Nápoli, would land in Saint-Domingue and in less than six months would manage to capture and hang Dessaline. Marie Antoinette would be found mentally broken, after suffering an experience so traumatic that according to the prisoners, she was made only for the amusement of Dessalines who promoted a white genocide in what he called Haiti, the territory that Saint-Domingue compromised. Marie Antoinette's death was a major tragedy for France and Austria.
Some signs of insubordination that had appeared among his soldiers since his departure from Lille, showing that he had little confidence in them. Some protested that they had not fired a single shot. In the first retrograde movement made by the French, they were pursued by the Austrian colonel, Baron de Vogelsang, who had 3 guns, who opened fire at a great distance, the shots not even reaching the last of Dillon's army. However, the distrust of the soldiers towards their aristocratic generals and the fear caused the horsemen who were marching in the rear to panic, causing them to rout shouting "Every man for himself, we are betrayed". This movement and the shouts spread the confusion among the infantry troops, who joined the flight, abandoning the 4 cannons. Ammunition wagons and baggage wagons were also abandoned by the carters, who mounted their horses and fled. The entire army joined the rush to the road, fleeing towards Baisieux. General Theobald Dillon tried in vain to round up the fugitives before the enemy caught up with them. Turbulent shouts and insults were uttered against the general who was hit by a pistol shot from one of his soldiers. It was then that the Imperials emerged. In the general alarm, the panic of the completely disorganized troops who crossed Baisieux and continued to flee headlong towards Lille. As soon as they reached the city, a considerable gathering of soldiers from the different regiments that make up the garrison formed at the Porte de Fives. Colonel of Engineers Pierre-François Berthois, M. de La Rousselière, Dillon's second in command, was arrested by soldiers in a blind rage, who hung him on one of the battlements of the place and then dismembered, and also cut the throat of 3 or 4 enemy prisoners.
The wounded General Dillon, returning wounded in a wagon, was slaughtered with bayonets. The soldiers then ripped his body from the car, dragging it through the streets to the Grand Place where they threw him into a bonfire. Arthur Dillon, brother of Théobald Dillon, lodged a complaint with the Assembly. However, the murderers were not identified and therefore punished, however the general's widow obtained a pension to raise her children. For his part, the Marquis de Biron carried out the reconnaissance in force in the direction of Mons. On April 28, Biron set out in 3 columns, he commanded the central one, Serignan the right and Crespin the left, they arrived at Quiévrain, just on the other side of the Franco-Belgian border, there they faced Austrian forces under the command of the Austrian Field Marshal Baron de Beaulieu, attacking the Austrian forces that were in the city, who were surrounded and fled, they took 100 prisoners, 6 guns and 7 ammunition wagons. The French encamped in the city and Biron exalted by the success and planned to take the city of Mons and eventually Brussels. The next day, he continued advancing in 3 columns, leaving 1 volunteer battalion at Quiévrain. On April 29, the French forces approached Mons, where Marshal Beaulieu was waiting for them with some 3,000 troops and 10 cannons entrenched on the heights of Bertaimont. An exchange of artillery fire and reconnaissance attacks ensued to discover the Austrian forces, and Biron judged that his forces were not strong enough and decided to withdraw. He being pursued by 500 hunters on foot and on horseback. On April 30, when his troops were passing through Quiévrain again, about 30 men were shot down by enemy hunters, a false alarm of an Austrian attack caused the soldiers to panic and they fled to Valenciennes in disorder. These two actions were the first clashes in the First Coalition War, and highlighted the lack of discipline of the French Revolutionary Army.
By 1792, Revolutionary France was not prepared for war, the treasury was empty, chaos reigned in the army, and the people suffered a fit of collective hysteria. The rumor spread that the chiefs of the army of aristocratic origin were in cahoots with the enemy, and on May 29 the dissolution of the Royal Guard was decreed. On June 8, the recruitment of 20,000 national guards was approved, which would converge in Paris on July 14, to commemorate the storming of the Bastille. In the first days of July, the allied armies were concentrated on the borders of France, the external threat united all the political forces and on July 11 the Legislative Assembly decreed the general mobilization, an appeal was made to all the French with the phrase: "Citizens, the homeland is in danger!". The following day a decree was issued to create new battalions which was read in all the squares of France. Solemnly in Paris 15,000 volunteers presented themselves. Such a decree unleashed a campaign of agitation that focused its attacks against the monarchy and the aristocracy. In the midst of this state of agitation, on July 25, the Duke of Brunswick, head of the Allied army, issued a manifesto, drawn up by an émigré absolutist French nobleman, in which he threatened to kill all National Guardsmen who defended Paris or took reprisals against the royal family. Its diffusion in France contributed to exalt the popular movement to the point that many Royal Guards would end up fleeing to Montemedy to form part of the Garde du Corps, who would stand out for their icy ferocity in combat, becoming known as the "Frères de Saint Louis". Waving a white flag with the red fleur-de-lys emblazoned on it, the mere rumor that the Garde were in the area was enough to unsettle the bravest of revolutionaries.
The rumor that spread through Paris that the King had died and sentenced any Revolutionary to death, accelerated the plans for the insurrection. The initiative was taken by the cordeliers, the heads of the federated national guards and the leaders of the Parisian sections where the sans-culottes predominated, who since July 26 had formed a kind of committee that would meet again on July 4 and 9. August. This last day it was decided to start the insurrection, after learning that the Legislative Assembly had rejected the request of the sections for the dethronement of the King. At dawn on August 10, two columns of federated national guards and sans-culottes set out for the Tuileries. The first with some 5,000 troops came from the left bank of the Seine and the second of about 15,000 troops, under the command of the wealthy brewer Antoine-Joseph Santerre, from the eastern sections of the capital, the number increasing as they advanced. At that time, the defense of the royal palace was already organized by some 800 Swiss guards, who had been joined by more than a thousand national guards loyal to the Legislative Assembly and a few hundred volunteers from the old Royal Guard who did not flee to Montmedy. The artillerymen were positioned on Pont-Neuf (New Bridge) with the instructions of the department to prevent the union of these columns, but Manuel, the city secretary, asked them to withdraw and passage was then authorized. The loyal forces seemed sufficient to face the 20,000 men that the two columns of insurgents added up, but the arrest of their leader, the Marquis de Mandat at 07:00 hours by the insurgent Commune proclaimed by the rebels, deprived them of a unified command, which would prove fatal. The Swiss guards and the volunteers defending the Tuileries refused to surrender despite the fact that the King and the royal family were no longer in the palace, so the fighting began.
The Swiss guards killed several hundred rebels, when they tried to flee through the gardens they were mowed down by the insurgent forces, the wounded were finished off with bayonets and pikes, and only about 150 managed to reach the Assembly. When the insurgents entered the palace, they murdered the servants, considering them traitors, and then cut off some heads from the corpses and displayed them on their pikes. Some 60 Swiss City Hall prisoners were massacred there. Others would die in prison as a result of their injuries. As a transitional government and in agreement with the insurgent Commune, a Provisional Executive Council was set up, made up of the former Girondin ministers and the cordelier Georges Danton, who held the portfolio of Justice. An extraordinary court was also formed, likewise at the request of the insurgent Commune, which would be in charge of judging the crimes of the court. On August 17, General Lafayette criticized the growing influence of the radicals, writing a letter to the Assembly from his post, ending the letter by demanding that these parties be "shut down by force." He was wrong for the moment, since the radicals totally controlled Paris. Lafayette went there, and on June 28 he gave a fiery speech before the Assembly denouncing the Jacobins and other radical groups. In his place, he was accused of deserting his troops. Lafayette appealed for volunteers to fight the Jacobins; when very few people showed up, he finally understood the mood of the public and left Paris in a hurry. Robespierre called him a traitor and the mob attacked and burned his effigy. Lafayette was imprisoned by the royalists near Sedan, when they recognized the famous Lafayette. Although Louis and Marie Antoinette had ever met Lafayette, it had been before the French Revolution. The king now saw him as a dangerous promoter of rebellion, so he decides to imprison him to prevent him from overthrowing other monarchs.
In the midst of the chaos, the greatest danger resided in the Revolutionary Army, which had 82,000 troops, not counting the border garrisons. However, Lafayette, who was in Sedan, learned of the storming of the Tuileries and ordered General Arthur Dillón (cousin of Théobald Dillon), who was in Pont-sur-Sambre, and General Charles François Dumouriez, who was in the maulde field. , march on Paris. The first, who was a royalist, accepted, the second, who was a friend of the Girondins, refused to obey. Learning of the mutiny, the Assembly sent commissars to Sedań unaware that it was in royalist hands, but they were taken prisoner and imprisoned on Dillon's orders. Others were dispatched on August 18, giving Dumouriez command of the army of the North. At the same time, Luckner, who was in Metz and a friend of Lafayette's, also refused to accept the decree, receiving a visit from various commissars with orders to replace him with General François Christophe Kellermann and send him to Châlons to take charge of the troops. second line. However, one of Luckner's senior officers executed the commissars before shouting "We are soldiers of the King of France. And the King of France needs us where he needs us to be." Such a situation caused 17,000 men occupying the section between Montmédy and the Vosges to go into royal service while Dillon commanded 16,000 men and did the same. In total, the royalists had 43,000 soldiers spread out along the border. These forces supported the invasion of the allied forces formed by 3 armies. The problem in the allied army was the difference in criteria between King Frederick William and the Duke of Brunswick. The king sympathized with the allies, including the situation of the young King Louis XVII, while the duke hated them. As for the strategy, the King was in favor of going directly to Paris, where the people would receive their king with open arms, while Brunswick was in favor of capturing the border fortresses in that campaign, where he would establish warehouses and winter , getting ready. the bell. for the following year. He dreaded the idea of marching into France in the fall, leaving behind unconquered strongholds.
The German writer and thinker Johann Wolfgang von Goethe would accompany the allied army at the invitation of Karl August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who commanded a regiment of Prussian cuirassiers. On August 12 at dawn, Prussian light troops reached French territory. On August 15, the Prussian army arrives at the camp between Sierck and Luxembourg, and General Clairfayt, leading the Austrians, establishes contact with the French royalist forces, which allows them to have a core of troops that know the terrain. With the capitulation of the fortress of Verdun, which had previously been in revolutionary hands on September 2, the road to Paris was opened. Some ministers began to think of leaving the capital on the same day, but Danton launched into the Assembly: "To defeat you, gentlemen, we need boldness, still boldness, always boldness, and France is saved." The allies to go to Paris had to take Reims, which was a formidable revolutionary stronghold and was one of the most important cities in France. The city was surrounded by a wall, and the River Vesle flowed through the city from southeast to northwest. On September 10, the allied army began the movement, and established the camp in sight of Reims, which they called Drecklager (field of filth). The allies reconnoitred the French positions, which they considered too strong for a frontal attack. What caused the Allied artillery to start a bombardment aimed at weakening the revolutionary defensive lines during several hours of bombardment. The intensity of the bombardment caused the revolutionary French troops to enter the walls in a panic.
The Allied army squandered the opportunity and did not attack, allowing the revolutionary commanders to restore order while the Allied regiments, led by the French royalists, began to advance. Advancing blindly through the mist on the cold morning of September 20, without the mist, it would have been easy to see the defensive advantages of the site but the allied troops were unaware of the state of the defenses, as the allied troops advanced they ran into a small force revolutionary who occupied a farm but who were driven out when the Prussian hussars took care of them. Through a quick interrogation, the hussars discovered that the defensive lines had been pushed back to the walls, so through a corridor with the information, the rest of the allied troops advanced more motivated, some for the desire to take revenge and others for possible looting. . However, when the fog lifted the revolutionary defenders saw how the allied formations were advancing in closed columns. When General Dumouriez saw them, he put his cap on the point of his saber and began to shout "Long live the nation!" His soldiers imitated him and put their caps on the points of their bayonets and shouted "Long live the nation, live France, live our general! a clamor that lasted several minutes from the walls. This was followed by an artillery attack that would last for several hours, the enemies were separated by a distance of 1,000 meters, a long distance for the guns of the time, also the clayey ground was so soaked that the projectiles did not ricochet, but instead they were buried in it. Allied soldiers and officers were forced to crouch and seek cover as cannonballs passed their sides causing several officers to be killed or seriously wounded. The Revolutionary artillery fired about 20,000 shots to the point that the cannons overheated. Seeing the situation, Dumouriez came to the conclusion that he could only do one thing: counterattack.
Accumulating first the cavalry and then the regular infantry and finally the volunteers. While the fire and smoke from the cannons hid the movements near the gates, the revolutionary troops moved into position armed with their muskets and in some cases with sabers and lances. A thick cloud of smoke covered the outer field as the French artillerymen ceased firing, Brunswick and his staff seeing the cessation of artillery as a good time to launch an attack, and the Duke sent his infantry forward. They advanced several hundred meters, when they began to hear "vive la France" while they saw rows of regular infantry uniformed in white together with volunteer militias in blue with the revolutionary cavalry ready to charge. Allied and royalist officers identified the regulars as professional troops of the old royal army and were not mere peasants with no military experience. In view of the situation, Brunswick turned to those around him and said "Gentlemen, you see what kind of troops we have to face, those French only wait for us to advance to charge against us." He decided to hold a council of war in which he said "We must not attack here", and added "the assault will possibly fail and in case of success we would get little with it" the duke told his staff. King Frederick William did not object. "The Cry of Reims" became a legendary moment in French history. The soldiers would fight not for the king, but for his nation. Although their battle was successful, Dumouriez agreed that his situation was dangerous. The next day, a messenger went to Paris to request more reinforcements and ammunition. Allied troops instead intercepted herds of cattle and supply wagons. Meanwhile, the peasantry resisted helping the invaders. The Prussian deserters informed the French that they had been reduced to eating dead horses.
Far more deadly than French weapons were the invisible pathogens that spread dysentery through coalition forces. The deadly outbreak of what the French called la couree Prussienne was serious enough to earn a place in the medical literature of the 19th century. Of course, the role of microbes in causing disease was unknown, and this epidemic during the Reims campaign was often blamed on soldiers eating immature grapes and potatoes. To no avail, army surgeons treated patients by bleeding them or dosing them with rhubarb, ipecac, or even lemonade. Approximately 12,000 of the allied army of 42,000 men came down with dysentery, and a large part of them died. On September 25, General Veneur was taken prisoner during a French raid. At the personal request of Federico Guillermo II he was released, Dumouriez took the opportunity to send a memorandum to the King, stating the reasons for ending the war, he also sent coffee and sugar, knowing that he lacked them. Brunswick was quick to embrace the idea, upon receiving disturbing news from Poland. On September 27 he received a second memorandum on the separation of Prussia from Austria, which was rejected by the King. On the night of September 30 to October 1, Brunswick broke camp at the Lune and deftly withdrew his army to the bank of the Meuse, apparently Dumouriez let them pass by the Argonne. In early October the Prussians abandoned Verdun. Dysentery and long and insecure supply lines finally induced the coalition army to abandon France entirely on 23 October. The government in Paris appointed Dumourietz commander-in-chief of the French armies, and authorized him to carry out his plan to conquer the Austrian Netherlands. On November 6, the forces under his command defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Jemappes.
Instead, the royalists embarked in the Austrian Netherlands bound for Saint-Domingue; the richest French colony in the Americas thanks to the immense profits generated by slave labor in the sugar and indigo industries. The arrival of the royalists was a break in the dreams of the rich criollo landowners who wanted to take control of the island and create favorable trade regulations to promote their own wealth and power and restore the social and political equality granted to the criollos. Dominicans. Louis XVII's young age and his dependence on his mother made Creole aristocrats such as Vincent Ogé, Jean-Baptiste Chavannes and the former governor of Saint-Domingue Guillaume de Bellecombe try to give them superior interests, but the superiority of Marie Antoinette and the ignorance of Louis XVII was not at all pleasant for the Creoles who had to face an even more violent uprising by the Maroon communities made up of thousands of slaves who escaped into the mountains and then raided isolated plantations to free family and friends. However, the situation became so difficult that when representatives of the National Republican Assembly from Paris secretly arrived in Saint-Domingue, it was not difficult for them to unleash several riots to wrest control of Saint-Domingue from the royal government. By then Louis XVII was ten years old and his mother was the one who actually ruled Saint-Domingue at the time that thanks to the help of royalist sympathizers, they managed to escape with a part of the French treasury that allowed them to maintain their wealthy lifestyle even build in Port-au-Prince, a palace from which he gave lavish parties in this Palace that drew the attention of the world, however the slave rebellions continued and the Queen would end up indirectly promoting slavery by allowing Spanish merchants dedicated to trade of slaves made a fortune.
However, the Metropolitan Revolutionary support for the Creole rebels led to the start of a winter-spring offensive in the northern province on January 30, 1796, where eighty-thousand rebel slaves and revolutionary sympathizers were secretly trained in the jungles and jungles of the mountains. The Campaign of 1796 was led by Toussaint Louverture, Benoit Joseph André Rigaud however it was Louverture's protégé Jean-Jacques Dessalines who would lead the charge, gaining a reputation for his "take no prisoners" policy and for burning houses and entire villages. down to the foundations. Dessalines applied the tactics to defeat the French ordered by Toussaint where he applied a Total War including Scorched Earth, Dessalines becoming famous for his orders that all Europeans almost without exception be shot. Such measures, though, would raise problems between Toussaint and Dessalines, but the effectiveness would be quite high to the point that many Europeans would flee the country, even leaving the royalist side to flee to Revolutionary France. In view of the success achieved by the revolution, England from Halifax sent a fleet led by the 64-gun flagship HMS Europa (under the command of Captain George Gregory), and made up of the captured French 14-gun sloop Goéland (commander Thomas Wolley ) and the schooner Flying Fish (Lieutenant Colonel John Whitelocke); He arrived ten days later without meeting resistance with the intention of supporting the French Royalists. The arrival of the British saw how in the first two months they lost 40 officers and 600 men in the campaign, their troops being reduced to 828 soldiers, most of them sick with tropical diseases. Worse, the neutral inhabitants of Saint-Domingue (whites, mulattoes and blacks) refused to join their ranks. While Louverture quickly takes control of an important territory in the north zone.
At Christmas the British are forced to withdraw when their open sympathy for blacks caused them to be viewed with suspicion by the French royalists. However, the British ended up relegated to providing financial and military support in the form of supplies such as guns and gunpowder along with food. British support, on the other hand, only hindered the royalist defense, which was further weakened when the last companies of royalist professional and veteran troops were defeated by Dessalines, who through meticulous and well-executed planning, managed to get rebel troops to begin infiltrating the slaves. and blacks freed in the royalists to later attack key buildings such as barracks, command posts, even minor fortifications and weapons stores with the so-called Slave Granades; glass bottles filled with a flammable substance such as lamp fuel, alcohol, or a similar mixture and an ignition source, such as a burning cloth wick, held by the bottle stopper. Such weapons were effective because the abundance of liquor was remarkable and they could be created anywhere in less than five minutes, in the end even the areas considered safe were also attacked. It is estimated that in Port-Au-Prince, slaves fed up with the white yoke ended up setting fire to fourteen mansions and in the resulting riots, a company from Gardes was shot while the Royal Palace where Louis XVII lived and his mother Marie Antoinette received the impact of several Slave Grenades that luckily did not cause great damage. The Port-Au-Prince riots saw rebel guerrillas and slaves entrenched in seized and fortified houses and buildings while facing the royalist counter-attack with all weapons at their disposal. The threat of an uprising in the capital much like Paris saw the defenses on the front line weaken allowing Toussaint to give Dessalines the authority to advance.
Almost like a tidal wave, Dessalines advanced with all the forces under his command, forcing the royalists to mobilize all available forces to combat the Dessalines offensive, although the royalist troops fell back, they did so at an immense price of destruction. The regular soldiers of Dessalines forged a legendary reputation that came to receive the Nsumbi (Voodoo Demon) because they fought without the possibility of withdrawal or surrender, refusing to be helped or replaced by new units. Something the Royalists couldn't do either. The fighting was very hard and the destruction suffered by the cities due to the use of artillery and incendiary weapons was very great, but perhaps the most outstanding thing was the use of the machete as a melee weapon. The machete, often used to cut rainforest undergrowth and for agricultural purposes (cutting sugar cane, for example), became the most iconic tool and weapon of the Revolution to the point that the most dramatic example of its use was with the Battle of Ile de La Gonâve when Toussaint ordered to take the island and five thousand Nsumbi in rafts and canoes crossed the strait to land on the island that was garrisoned by the Corps royal d'infanterie de la marine (royal infantry corps of the navy). The royal infantry corps fought against the rebels until they ran out of ammunition and then they began to use their bayonets or tools such as axes or swords, however 152 royalist soldiers would end up surrendering to the Nsumbi forces however this surrender was denied when the Nsumbi ended up beheading to the royalists and sent the oldest ships to Port-Au-Prince loaded with gunpowder and with the heads of their soldiers on spears or sharp sticks while their bodies adorned the masks. The fire in Port-Au Prince denied the port's ability to accommodate ships and was a prelude to what would happen if Dessalines arrived.
The horrendous casualties and suffering suffered by the royalist units began to be noticed and many soldiers and nobles ended up starting to desert to Spanish Santo Domingo. In the midst of these events, Toussaint would be betrayed by Dessalines, when Toussaint began to speak with the British to allow the withdrawal of the French Royal Family, however Dessalines publicly accused of such an act and Toussaint would end up being arrested and interned in an unknown prison, Toussaint would end up dying of exhaustion from the forced labor he was forced to do, malnutrition due to the scant food and water he could consume, pneumonia due to prison conditions, and possibly tuberculosis. Dessalines assumed command of military operations and due to his reputation he established a despotic regime where the military ruled everything. Seeing the control that the revolutionaries had in Saint-Domingue, Dessalines gave a speech where he demanded "unceasing vigor in the attack to the heart of Port-Au-Prince". On March 9, 1767, Dessaline's forces reached Croix des Bouquets, the last line of defense before Port-Au-Prince, where royalist troops made a last stand and held the city through fierce fighting for 10 days. . By this time, the royalist troops that fought at Croix des Bouquets were undisciplined and had problems with supplies in the face of corruption in the rear. The Royalists finally withdrew from Croix des Bouquets on 19 March after having inflicted heavy losses on Dessalines, the arrival of Royalist troops in the capital looking mostly battered and leaderless, plunging the city into anarchy comparable to the that was in Paris, when there was the storming of the Bastille. Rapid rebel advances raised concerns that the city, which had been fairly peaceful during the war and whose people had endured relatively little suffering except guerrilla bombings, would soon come under direct attack led the more paranoid to prophesy a retaliatory bloodbath. After decades of slavery.
News of Dessaline's troops executing royalist army officers, Roman Catholics, intellectuals, businessmen and other suspected counterrevolutionaries by beheading and other executions. Most of the citizens of other countries allied with Royalist France wanted to evacuate the city before it fell, and many les blancs (plantation owners and a lower class of whites who often served as overseers or laborers, as well as artisans and merchants). ), especially those associated with the royal court or the previous government, also wanted to leave. However, the rebel garrison on Ile de La Gonâve blocked any ship leaving Port-Au-Prince, sinking ships full of innocent people or in some cases boarding them to make five-second trials before issuing their sentence. Ile de La Gonâve stood out for the immense number of deaths where there would be thousands of dead men hanging upside down, drowned in sacks, crucified, buried alive, while to further denigrate the slave-owning white man, the former slaves forced their former owners to consume feces while they were flayed with lashes. While women were subjected to collective rapes where women from twelve years old to old. When a royalist ship of refugees was trapped by the so-called Pirates of La Gonâve, the women tried to commit suicide and also end the lives of their daughters and sons by cutting their wrists, although, of course, they did not know how to do it effectively and in many cases had to ask for help from sailors who did not make sure of their luck and in their last moments of life, the dying women suffered the depravity and desecration of being a toy in cruel hands.
On the afternoon of April 27, Port-Au-Prince began to be hit by Dessalines' artillery, desperate to show that they were the first to attack Port-Au-Prince, so the cannons began to fire at enormous distances and only succeeded. reach only the districts located more to the northeast of the city. The only defenders of the French Monarchy were the Maison Militaire du Roi de France (military household of the king of France) who acted as a bodyguard but was made up of veterans motivated to defend the monarchy. Although there were Royalist detachments motivated by the efforts of a staff officer to impose some semblance of order amid the chaos, Royalist stragglers fell back as fast as possible and in some cases improvised combat units to engage in small combat. although ferocious wherever they were threatened. The retreating royalist forces found, to make matters worse, that all roads were blocked by increasingly terrified refugees. When the so-called Black Riders armed with machetes reached the outskirts of the city, the defensive batteries readied their 8-pounder Gribeauval cannon in order to engage the cavalry. Any kind of counterattack was repulsed and involved a cost of lives, gunpowder and in many cases meters. Motivated by patriotic fervor, at one point the civilians would protect the city but the common vision after a fight was to see how the militiamen bandaged their wounds, provisionally fixed their weapons and clothing and cleaned their weapons, before starting to run to another street or avenue. Tragic scenes occurred when in a field hospital, volunteer nurses from any social stratum: peasants, bourgeois, aristocrats, even nobles and foreigners, tried to save lives. One of the latter found her lover from the Garde du Corps among the seriously wounded who had just entered. She "embraced him, she placed the young man's head on her lap and she remained with him until she died of a serious injury to her skull."
Like all royalists, they had lost their possessions and had just lost the cause for which they fought. This fact, combined with their visceral hatred of the Revolutionaries, made them formidable combatants during the Battle of Port-Au-Prince. For most of the battle, ad-hoc volunteer units defended their combat zones as best they could even looting friendly and enemy corpses alike, treating only their own with respect, but impaling dying enemies for added provocation. The soldiers, who had not received any rations for five days, raided the houses abandoned by their owners. Some were so tired that, after eating what they found, they fell exhausted in any bed with their uniforms still full of dirt. In these cases they plunged into such a deep sleep that they were only awakened by the arrival of the enemy or the appearance of enemies who proceeded to kill them brutally. A courtier of the court who managed to survive until the arrival of the Spanish forces would write: "the children, armed with wooden swords and sticks, with their long legs, their hair cut short on the nape of their necks and their intense bangs, scream, jump, jump and they make gestures of stabbing each other... It is something eternal, which can never be eliminated from the condition of the human being. While their fathers fight with peasants and merchants and their mothers learn how to cut their wrists to avoid being the toy of a black demon, created by his own arrogance and superiority." The constant background noise caused by the artillery barrage tested the nerves of the citizens. They were able to verify that the expression "the thundering of the cannons" was not one of the bombastic commonplaces typical of war, but a completely accurate description. The noise spread and rumbled everywhere—and especially in the backyards of buildings—as if it were a storm.
The last moments of Port-Au-Prince were filled with agony and suffering because Marie Antoinette decided to sacrifice her son, while the fortified exteriors of the Palace were defended by courtiers firing muskets, royal guards with bandaged wounds and drunken women who would rather die fighting than die. commit suicide or even be the toy of what they called "A disgusting Black Monkey". A luck that they would avoid in her favor, but while Marie Antoinette managed to save her son by causing his death and burning her body to avoid desecrating her as they did with Lambelle. Instead, she would be caught up as the rebels stormed in, bathed in French blood, and proceeded to loot the palace. She would be caught by her hair and dragged to a bedroom where she would suffer for hours the fate of being desecrated and humiliated to the point of her mental breakdown. Later, she would walk through the dilapidated streets of Port-Au-Prince dressed as a slave to be presented to the Monster who proceeded to exhibit her as Rome did Vercingetorix and other enemy kings along the avenue of the Eternal City. But Maria did not die peacefully. She would suffer for weeks until a Spanish army led by Federico Carlos Gravina and Nápoli, would land in Saint-Domingue and in less than six months would manage to capture and hang Dessaline. Marie Antoinette would be found mentally broken, after suffering an experience so traumatic that according to the prisoners, she was made only for the amusement of Dessalines who promoted a white genocide in what he called Haiti, the territory that Saint-Domingue compromised. Marie Antoinette's death was a major tragedy for France and Austria.
Poor Haiti and Toussaint, no matter the TL, they can't see to end up in good positions.
Paladín Wulfen
Kicked
Genocide 101. I feel my soul rotting.
Remains.
When you kill French.
When Spanish kill you.
Draka moment.
As long as they don't end up as screwed as otl, I'm satisfied