I make a mistake while i was doing the map. Literally i forget about the territories exact and yada yada this happen.
Un Dios, Un Imperio, Un Rey | Alternate TL.
- Thread starter Paladín Wulfen
- Start date
That's perfectly understandable
Just be a little less harsh with your audience? We like your work
In reality i am being nice, sounds harsh for my english grammar.
En realidad soy un amor de persona y siempre estoy dispuesto a aceptar sugerencias y escuchar criticas.
The Hermit Kingdom
While the world focused its eyes on Africa as a continent of darkness to be illuminated with the torch of civilization and imperialism. In Asia, a kingdom was hidden like a turtle or snail. That Kingdom was so isolationist that it received the name Hermit Kingdom of Asia since 1636 as a consequence of two Manchu invasions, the Kingdom of Joseon, named after its reigning dynasty. However, after the American Civil War, a new King of Korea arose. This was Gojong. Who was the maximum defender of isolationism firmly opposed to Western demands to establish diplomatic and commercial relations and instrument of the persecution of native and foreign Christians. This situation worsened when in 1870, five Catholic missionaries of Spanish origin with ten missionaries born in Japan were executed for proselytizing before a growing Korean flock that due to the borders with China had shown more interest in Christianity. At first, the Korean court turned a blind eye to such religious incursions. However, this attitude was abruptly changed by order of the young King Gojong. It is estimated that when this occurred, there were a total of about 30,000 native Korean converts. Several factors contributed to the decision by Heungseon Daewongun, a Joseon minister with authority from Gojong, to crack down on Catholics. Daewongun had seen the fate suffered by the powerful Qing Dynasty who had not reaped more than hardships, humiliations, even the loss of territory in the midst of their deal with Western powers, the clearest and simplest example being the Taiping Rebellion in China. which had been infused with Christian doctrines. The years leading up to the execution of the so-called Korea Fifteen saw bad harvests in Korea, as well as social unrest, which contributed to a greater sensitivity and attraction towards the foreign creed. The crackdown on Christianity within factional cliques at court had certain effects.
Untold numbers of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimates are around 20,000) along with the Korean Fifteen. This produced an exodus that fled by sea (most died due to the poor quality of the ships or by pirates who enslaved them) or by land. Everything changed when in a Catholic church guarded by Spanish-Japanese soldiers a short distance from the Yalu River he saw a boy approaching them, clearly on the brink of freezing to death and starving to death even with whip and arrow marks. After being treated until he regained consciousness, he explained the situation in Joseon. He said that he had come to seek the help of the powerful Christian kings who managed to humiliate the Dragon Empire. The revealed situation would cause a stir, especially as it was miraculous that an uneducated Christian boy could have survived the trip. Assemblies were started, even the Japanese newspapers demanded a punitive expedition against the Hermit who had committed such excesses against the Christians. Finally, the Viceroy of Japan: Tomas Saigō made the decision to grant authority for large-scale interventions against the royal government of Joseon in 1871. The Viceroy authorized the dispatch of five ships: Las Fragatas San Juan Bautista, Santiago el Mayor, the sloops Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary and Santa María with a crew of 600 Marines under the command of Admiral and Duke Francisco Kuroda. The expedition set sail from Nagasaki and it did not take long to reach the Yellow Sea until circulating along the southern coast of the Peninsula, approaching the estuary of the Han River that led to Hanyang (Seoul), the capital of the Kingdom. However, along the way was Ganghwado or Ganghwa Island, a strategically located and fortified island that controlled access to the river. The island itself was fortified with six forts which earned it the nickname Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) by the Spanish Japanese.
The commanding officer of the Ganghwado garrison was Inspector and Commanding General Eo Jae-yeon. Under his command were those called "San cheok" or "Tiger Hunters" for their fierceness in combat and courageous experience. The Tiger Hunters were an elite force made up of regular peasants with talents in bow and arrow hunting and horsemanship experts hunting mainly tigers, which were so numerous on the Korean peninsula that being attacked by tigers was a common concern for them. the farmers. Because of this public enemy that made everyone tremble as they traveled through the mountains and fields of Joseon. The Royal House and the government placed huge rewards on those who killed the tiger, with the size of the reward varying depending on the size of the tiger and the order in which the bow was shot. The first person to shoot the tiger received 6 pieces of cotton cloth, which was equivalent to two years of work for a grown man at that time. Also, since the captured tigers were part of the hunter, they could earn a lot of money by selling the skinned skins. At one point, they saw as many as 10,000 San Cheok in Joseon, due to the sheer number and size of the San Cheok eventually entering the royal army as a mixed infantry/light cavalry unit. The vision of such an armed fleet made the garrison alert and soon talks began. The Japanese-Spanish let the Koreans know that their fleet would be dedicated to exploring the area, however, they prohibited the navigation of any foreign ship from the Han River, which gave access to the city of Hanyang and therefore its security was vital. Despite the refusal, the Japanese-Spanish fleet decided to continue and began to navigate through the straits of Ganghwa Island, which give access to the river. Facing the violation of the warned limits, the Korean fortresses opened fire to no avail due to the poor quality compared to the Spanish-Japanese naval guns and naval armor.
The fleet was not seriously damaged even after coming under intense fire for at least 15 minutes in which it could not even hit the ships directly. Admiral Francisco Kuroda in response ordered an intense bombardment in response. The guns of the frigates and Sloops quickly demonstrated the logical result and as predictable as bloody; the walls of most of the fortifications were collapsed causing substantial casualties among the defenders. While the ships unleashed their hell from smoothbore and rifle cannons, landing boats with Marines from the Tercios de Armada disembarked waging a battle against the Korean defenders who were armed with very outdated rifles, like key-locked muskets. matchlock, very different from the standard bolt action rifles of the Spanish imperial army in Japan designed by Centurion Teodoro Murata, officer of the Imperial Army. The rate and firepower of the Murata Infantry Carbine caused the Koreans to withdraw, which was pursued by the Japanese-Spanish marine infantry to the Gwangseonbo fortress. The fortress itself had only three cannons and a surplus of matchlock muskets that were barely a match for the Murata. In the end, the slow reload time of the Korean muskets added to the Muratas carried by the Japanese-Spanish made the walls give way as the Koreans hurled rocks at their attackers. The Japo-Hispanic Marines would end up taking the fortress, General Eo would be assassinated while his flag was taken as a trophy. The ensuing defeat allowed the flotilla to travel up the estate until finally reaching Seoul. The Japanese forces were superior to those of the Koreans among whom they caused an enormous commotion and panic,8 a situation aggravated when Kuroda refused to even receive low-ranking Korean representatives and declared that he had a letter from the Emperor himself which he demanded to be able to deliver personally. to the Emperor, King or other similarly high Korean officials, threatening to deliver the letter by force if not received in a propitious time.
After a month of negotiations, Spain and Joseon signed the agreement with which diplomatic relations between Joseon and Western Christian countries began for the first time. The destruction of Joseon's isolationist walls irreversibly altered Joseon's history and also had an inordinate impact on its culture and society: Politically, Spain forced Joseon to abandon its default policy of avoiding all contact with foreign countries. Westerners and Christians, something that had permeated even in Korean society that by then already considered all European foreigners as 'pagan barbarians', ideas that were initiated and promoted by the government for hundreds of years in use, the breaking of this policy and idealization provoked surprise. among the population. Joseon's opening up to uncontrolled trade with Europe brought with it immense economic instability, as while some businessmen prospered, many more went bankrupt. Unemployment and friction, as well as inflation, were some of the consequences. Coincidentally, major food producers also skyrocketed food prices, and there were numerous incidents between reckless foreign traders being labeled "garbage of the planet" for their price tags. Joseon's monetary system also collapsed. This led to the massive purchase of gold and silver, which inevitably led Joseon to devalue its economy. In the midst of this situation, the class consisting mainly of highly educated civil servants and military officers known as the Yangban began to split into political factions and cliques sympathetic to ideas such as 1. Using Westerners to modernize and stay free. 2. Join the Spanish Empire like Japan did. 3. Ally with a rival of the Spanish Empire like Russia.
Faced with this situation, a particular group of political officials, high-ranking military officers, as well as professional intelligence agents emerged whose real agenda was to campaign for military expansion and the conquest of the Asian continent. This group was called the Society of the Black Dragon. The Black Dragon Society's objective was to ensure Japanese dominance within the peninsula, the main enemy of which was Myeongseong, the wife of King Gojong. Popularly called Min, she was sixteen years old when she married King Gojong, who was fifteen. From the beginning she Min was not very willing to comply with what is traditionally expected of a queen. The young woman herself had no interest in the boring court life and she spent her time reading all the books that fell into her hands, whether they were history, philosophy or religion. The feud between Gojong's father and Min reached the point that Daewongun hinted that she Min was not in good enough health to produce a healthy heir. In the end, after five years of marriage, in 1868 the queen gave birth to a boy, who died three days later. Min was sure that her Daewongun's mother-in-law had caused the baby's death by poisoning. Since then, Min conceived a deep hatred for her mother-in-law. Min began a campaign to win the trust of high officials of the court and placed various members of her clan in key government positions with the aim that her husband Gojong hers could reign alone, without hindrance of any kind. guy. The breaking of isolation served Min's benefit as her mother-in-law left the court and Min took control of her, running the country together with her husband. Everyone, from foreign ambassadors and diplomats to her own courtiers, saw that her sovereign was not going to settle for being a mere "decorative adornment." Well, as with her mother-in-law, she also banished the royal concubine and her son, and began to develop a policy of profound reforms.
These policies saw Joseon trying to modernize and with a strong desire to strengthen its nation. Gojong, motivated by Min who devoured any foreign book that fell into her hands, ended up hiring European officers and soldiers from Prussia as military advisers who trained the Joseon royal army in the European style. In a few years, the infantry was modernized following the Prussian model. The same happened with the cavalry who quickly adopted the Totenkopf as a symbol of elitism and martial prowess for the Royal Guard. Min saw how the Joseon army could compete enough so that a Japanese invasion would not be repeated, so she advocated a thorough westernization of the army. Something frowned upon by conservatives. In the midst of these events, the Treaty of Ganghwa occurred in 1873, a treaty absolutely devoid of advantages for the country since it implied the access of Spain and its Viceroyalties to five Korean ports (Incheon, Busan, Gwangyang, Donghae and Sokcho), which they were forced to open up to trade, permission for Spanish ships to navigate their territorial waters, extraterritorial rights for Spanish citizens in Joseon and even Spanish imperial citizens could buy land on Korean soil without any kind of impediment even as if they were aristocrats. In fact, the signing of this treaty was a humiliation for the nation, which demanded to use the army, an army that was not yet prepared or equipped to even stab its aggressor. An understandable comparison would be the infamous case of "The teenager in the rapist alley", Joseon would be invaded by Spain, it would resist but in the end it would be taken and desecrated. A comparison made by an English newspaper. In these circumstances, the royal government was divided. On one side were the reformists and on the other the conservatives. Min, who had established relations with Russia to try to stop the Spanish, was unaware of the anti-Russian sentiments that were part of his government.
Min wanted to carry out educational and social reforms in Korea, including gender equality, with the aim of giving women full rights, as opposed to being the quasi furniture they were before. Totally in disagreement with the decisions made by the royal government, on December 4, 1874, a small group of soldiers tried to carry out a coup and tried to stop the kings, without success. Three days after the failed coup, one of the main reformist leaders, Kim Okgyun, managed to flee to Japan, but others involved were executed. But things could still get worse. As it happened. The Dragon Society led by Duke Carlos Aritomo discovered Min's plans to deal with the Empire through an alliance with Russia. The informant for this was Kim Okgyn, who was kidnapped drunk and drugged from a Kagoshima tavern and put into a carriage by a smiling man in a dark trench coat and wide-brimmed hat. That man was Hijikata Toshizō, a Ronin belonging to the organized crime Yamato Clan. The Yamato clan was a clan that always provided the military arm for the Black Dragon Society, and its fighters were mostly drawn from an exclusive military training school that took place in an ancient castle in the Mie region. When Kim Okgyun under Japanese ancestral tortures confessed to all of Min's plans. The goal of developing Joseon in government, technology, and the military by using foreign resources to help the nation become stable enough to withstand anticipated increases of foreign invasion. Faced with this revelation, Carlos Aritomo sent a statement to the top leader of the Society in Korea: Mario Goro for the deployment of a group of hitmen to assault the royal residence and end the life of the monarch, who represented a serious threat. for his expansionist plans.
The group of hitmen were called the so-called hitokiri whose meaning was "killer of men", the Hitokiri were elite warriors and widely considered invincible by the people of the criminal underworld. The Hitokiri were Gonzalo Kawakami, Tomas Kirino, Santiago Tanaka, Diego Okada, Samuel Okita, Hernan Saitō, Sebastian Keisuke, and Héctor Tōdō. Following the plan drawn up by Mario Goro, the Hitokiri entered the interior of the enclosure without encountering too many obstacles. Dispose of any courtiers, guards, or servants with lethality. The noise of the swords alerted the queen that she had disguised herself as a lady of the court to go unnoticed. However, an imperial guard defending the palace, seeing that the queen's life was in danger, tried to protect her from her, inadvertently revealing her identity. That fatal mistake led to Min's murder without anyone being able to prevent it. Queen Min and two courtesans were kidnapped and gagged and bound to Incheon, where they boarded a ship flying the Japanese viceregal flag. Inside the ship, the queen would suffer the fate of being raped along with her maidens before being dismembered and thrown into the sea with stones tied to her limbs. Queen Min's head would be presented to Carlos Aritomo as proof of death, moments before being doused with kerosene and burned. After hearing the news of the death of Queen Min, King Gojong and his son, the royal family went into mourning that saw the internal situation in the country worsen. At first they were inclined to withdraw from the country leaving a regency council in command of the country, but then King Gojong declared the Joseon Kingdom extinct, ending the centuries-long reign. Instead, the creation of a new country called the Korean Empire was advocated based on the self-determination of the Korean people. The history of Korea was not over and was about to become much bloodier than even the Imjin War.
Gojong accused the Spanish of the death of his wife and even used the discontent of Korean society against the political and economic intervention of foreigners, combined with xenophobic sentiment against European and Japanese influence. Gojong would supply the isolationist armed groups with weapons to fight against foreign interference that a large part of the nobility despised, although they were officially outlawed and operated outside the law, there were members of the court, who saw in them an instrument to end with foreign rule in the country. In this way, groups such as the sixty righteous armies indirectly saw themselves legitimized to start acting. His subversive activities began in 1878, and his goal was to eliminate any trace of a foreign presence in Korea. The country's embassies soon became targets and, despite being well protected, some were raided and their ambassadors assassinated. The righteous armies, despite being armed and motivated, lacked the training and even organization to deal with Western troops. For this reason, the embassies were assaulted with large numbers that reached the hundreds, however the main ones affected by the conflict were the Christians of Korean origin. Despite being numerous, and unable to flee anywhere, they were subjected to rape, torture and murder. Survivors who took refuge in the embassies described in great detail the violent attacks and atrocities committed against foreigners residing in Korea, ranging from looting, destruction, murder and rape against Christians, their property and even Korean domestic service. This situation was taken advantage of by the Dragon Society, who quickly began to assemble what would be known as the Korean Volunteer Army (KVA).
The KVA was a mixture of various sources, with the same goal: to end the Korean Empire and prosper. They were students and peasants, former troops, and even bandits. The former bandits played an important role by using their skills in the forests and mountains in guerrilla warfare. Most of the middle and high rank officers knew how to speak Spanish or Japanese and had even been baptized. The KVA would be key to the Dragon Society because when the third Imjin War broke out in 1880, they would perform the task of extremely well informing the composition and disposition of the enemy forces. The KVA would undertake in a matter of less than 16 days to seize the major ports of Incheon, Busan, Gwangyang, Donghae and Sokcho armed with Western Japanese equipment and with unexpected ferocity and remarkable success. Korean forces loyal to Gojong who advanced to occupy the ports to fortify them, were met by fire from Murata Rifles and even at least one "St. Étienne" heavy machine gun, developed from some captured American Gatlings, where they formed the basis for a reverse engineered design. The Righteous Armies were stunned to see entire companies of militiamen supported by Western-trained soldiers literally torn to pieces in a matter of seconds by the enormous firepower displayed. In any case, the results were, simply put, impressive. They were also tragic. The casualties made solely by a fighting force of armed and motivated volunteers shook the entire Korean chain of command all the way to Gojong's throne. Gojong decided then, to save the country from him at the cost of his life. He made his son de él Sunjong go to Russia as a refugee. He even made sixty Naegeumwi; Responsible for protecting the king and the royal family, we were to protect his son from him. He only kept forty. It is undeniable that Gojong viewed the Righteous Armies as cannon fodder to distract and weaken the Japanese forces. Gojong trusted his Imperial Korean Armed Forces, though not without some mistrust.
The Imperial Armed Forces were a Western-style army including modern equipment and command system. Although Min had helped establish many military academies in Korea. Gojong disbanded the palace guards (Siwidae) in August 1875 for failing to prevent the Japanese from assassinating Empress Myeongseong. The Korean Empire's military system consisted of imperial guards, central troops, and provincial troops. It consisted of infantry, artillery and cavalry, distributed around 44 barracks, formally training in marksmanship and exercises. Alongside these barracks was the Yeonmugongwon (연무공원, 鍊武公院), the Korean Empire Military Academy, with an officer training program to begin to bring the Imperial Korean Army on par with modern armies. By 1880, the Imperial Korean Army comprised the central army and the provincial armies. Made for strengthening the defense of the Korean Empire. The backbone of the central army is the Imperial Guard consisting of the Attendant, the Retinue, Guards, and the Capital Guard. The central army was directly under the command of a member of the Junta Marshal tasked with defending the emperor and the capital city of Hanyang. Provincial armies and garrison guards defend the borders. With the central and provincial armies, the army grew enormously to 40,000. However, Korea only had a single modern ship: the KIS Yangmu purchased from the British Empire who had used it as a cargo ship and simply armed it with cannons from twenty years ago. The remainder of the Imperial navy were Junk sailing ships that were equipped with carronades and other weapons for naval or pirate uses typically called "war junks" or "armed junks" by Western navies.
The KVA's capture of Busan made it relatively easy and safe to land up to 20,000 Japanese troops under the command of Manuel Ōmura. The landing was so successful that some in the Korean camp became suspicious of anyone who did not take up arms. In the time it took Omura to advance, the KVA proceeded to build in the ports under its control different and extremely strong defensive positions than the Koreans were used to: trench lines, blockhouses even barbed wire protected the ports. On June 25, 1880, Omura started what would be called "The Road to Yalu". An offensive that soon reached mythical proportions, with some stories reaching all KVA units even the border posts on the other side of the Yali River. With each battle, the destruction caused by the Japanese grew, the lethality of the attacks doubled, and the effect on morale among the Korean provincial troops was magnified. At times, the mere appearance of a light cavalry column was enough to cause blind panic among virtually all the forces in the area. Balancing these large Japanese advantages, at least somewhat, was the fact that Korean troops were fighting a defensive campaign, often from fortified positions, including old castles. While the garrisons were mostly made up of peasant recruits with no comparable Japanese training, there were enough veteran soldiers mixed in with the fort garrisons that it ensured a certain degree of willingness to fight to the death as if they tried to flee they risked being killed. by the allies and the certainty of being killed by some officer even members of the Righteous Armies who had turned quasi-bandits. Although far from the perfect method of ensuring fighting spirit, the method was brutally effective.
The orders from Gojong and the imperial high command were clear; stop the invader and drive him back into the sea. The fact that the Koreans had not even been able to drive the KVA out of their important ports did not even concern the command to Gojong. Most of the soldiers and conscripts accepted the orders. Most did not even consider that a different position was possible as the heralds and preachers used their demagogy to remind Koreans what had happened with the arrival of foreigners: the lack of food, the chaos or the whispered words of their parents. about economic concerns. Others even went as far as exaggerating the massacres the Japanese carried out during the invasion in 1592 motivating them to defend and fight even die so as not to see their children or grandchildren live as slaves to foreigners. It was with these thoughts that the Korean troops prepared for the battle of Seoul. The winter of 1880-81 saw the environs of Seoul resounding with the pounding of the Trubia artillery batteries that began as soon as dawn broke. For long weeks, Seoul was subjected to an apocalyptic bombardment to the point that many traces of the wall of stone, wood and other materials, built to protect the city of Seoul against invaders, had collapsed and were more rubble piles that served as embankments. from where the men, women and children of the city fought like beasts to defend themselves against the invaders, be it wielding rifles, muskets, pistols, swords, spears even stones and clubs, it was violence in its purest and most primitive state. At first, the Japanese soldiers expected token resistance from the Koreans and fierce resistance from the Righteous Armies. But in Seoul things changed, it took several incursion actions to know that in reality they mainly served the King out of fanaticism and xenophobic hatred.
Once this situation became apparent, the decision to inform the troops was almost automatic. From leadership to senior commanders, the message was: “Warn the men that all enemy troops are likely to hold out to the best of their ability. The message from the Legates to their top field commanders was: “The enemy forces show little tendency to break off the action until they have been eliminated in their entirety. The troops are suffering losses comparable to the troops during the Spanish-American War. Adapt accordingly." This message continued to distill until it was delivered to the troops by their senior NCO. By then, the message was short and to the point: "Expect these bastards to fight like hell." For soldiers, the real meaning of this The statement was clear. The enemy did not give up, could not be trusted, and the only way to return home alive was to make sure you did not leave any alive behind you. This message would reflect what would become known as the Seoul Massacre. The defenders of Seoul were purely professional units and exceptionally well-trained and equipped, but they were young, which put them almost on a par with the Japanese, fighting was a clash of well-trained and disciplined but inexperienced men against highly motivated semi-experienced troops.The result was fierce and intense.Seoul troops began to suffer losses almost immediately, in many cases long before they that they were in formation. Korean Guard units had to fight to organize and advance towards their objectives as they marched through the streets under artillery fire and fire. However, the Japanese did not have problems like the Koreans. The method of breaking through the Coran defenses was simplicity itself. If the Koreans used the buildings as cover, the Japanese would burn them to the ground.
Any house or building that was used to fire on advancing troops was targeted with incendiary alcohol bottles. The resulting fires destroyed almost 90% of the city of Seoul while killing much of the civilian population. However, heroically as Guard units held their positions with little flinch, whether out of patriotic fervor or simple military discipline, the Imperial Guard proved to be remarkably disciplined, well led, and loyal to their monarch. After the war, Japanese veterans would say that if the Koreans had been adequately equipped to the level of the Scandinavian, English or even Taiping forces, the invasion efforts would have been much more difficult, if not impossible. Instead, the efforts of the guard troops, equipped mostly with infantry weapons older than the men who wield them, can only be said to be tragically heroic. However, Japanese veterans would put them close to the level of an elite force. The Japanese at first thought that the Korean Imperial Guard would be a poorly disciplined unit or even without the necessary military aggressiveness. However, it was the opposite, the sense of honor after the death of Empress Min considered the "Warrior Queen" of hers was so deep, but the unit did not show a tendency to lose discipline or be overzealous in pursuing the units. japanese. What he had shown instead was an almost terrifying level of professional detachment towards casualties, both his own and enemy, and an iron discipline. The battle for the Imperial Palace was hard and relentless, reaching the melee level on several occasions with many Japanese officers drawing their military swords (Guntō). Losses on both sides were commensurate with the ferocity of the engagement, with little margin or mercy.
The fall of Seoul in 1881 symbolized the fall of the Korean Empire and Japan's half-millennial dream of subjugating Korea. Korea became a Captain General subjugated by Japan and its Viceroy while soon, waves of businessmen and veterans began to acquire land. The KVA became the base for the army garrisoned in Korea at the same time that many members of the Dragon Society would end up becoming noble figures in the new imperial province that was soon subjected to the exploitation of the conquerors. Soon a mercantilist colonial system was born and led to a focus on building major transportation infrastructure on the Korean peninsula for the purpose of extracting and exploiting natural resources. This resulted in larger port facilities, an extensive rail network, including a rail junction from the southern port city of Busan through the capital Seoul and north towards the Chinese border developed. This transport infrastructure not only facilitated a mercantilist system, but also a colonial-type economy for the extraction of raw materials (wood), food (mainly rice and fish) and mineral resources (coal and iron ore), but also as a strategic necessity to control Korea and move large amounts of troops and materials across the peninsula in a short period of time. Many Japanese settlers interested in acquiring agricultural land in Korea, managed to acquire land where they would act almost like landlords where they would oppress the Korean peasants by forcing them to send large quantities of rice to Japan, while the Korean population suffered a serious food shortage. The Korean people's standard of living deteriorated drastically; Thousands of Korean farmers were forced to abandon their roots, marry with japanese or spaniards, even learning Spanish or Japanese to seek better living conditions.
Untold numbers of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimates are around 20,000) along with the Korean Fifteen. This produced an exodus that fled by sea (most died due to the poor quality of the ships or by pirates who enslaved them) or by land. Everything changed when in a Catholic church guarded by Spanish-Japanese soldiers a short distance from the Yalu River he saw a boy approaching them, clearly on the brink of freezing to death and starving to death even with whip and arrow marks. After being treated until he regained consciousness, he explained the situation in Joseon. He said that he had come to seek the help of the powerful Christian kings who managed to humiliate the Dragon Empire. The revealed situation would cause a stir, especially as it was miraculous that an uneducated Christian boy could have survived the trip. Assemblies were started, even the Japanese newspapers demanded a punitive expedition against the Hermit who had committed such excesses against the Christians. Finally, the Viceroy of Japan: Tomas Saigō made the decision to grant authority for large-scale interventions against the royal government of Joseon in 1871. The Viceroy authorized the dispatch of five ships: Las Fragatas San Juan Bautista, Santiago el Mayor, the sloops Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary and Santa María with a crew of 600 Marines under the command of Admiral and Duke Francisco Kuroda. The expedition set sail from Nagasaki and it did not take long to reach the Yellow Sea until circulating along the southern coast of the Peninsula, approaching the estuary of the Han River that led to Hanyang (Seoul), the capital of the Kingdom. However, along the way was Ganghwado or Ganghwa Island, a strategically located and fortified island that controlled access to the river. The island itself was fortified with six forts which earned it the nickname Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) by the Spanish Japanese.
The commanding officer of the Ganghwado garrison was Inspector and Commanding General Eo Jae-yeon. Under his command were those called "San cheok" or "Tiger Hunters" for their fierceness in combat and courageous experience. The Tiger Hunters were an elite force made up of regular peasants with talents in bow and arrow hunting and horsemanship experts hunting mainly tigers, which were so numerous on the Korean peninsula that being attacked by tigers was a common concern for them. the farmers. Because of this public enemy that made everyone tremble as they traveled through the mountains and fields of Joseon. The Royal House and the government placed huge rewards on those who killed the tiger, with the size of the reward varying depending on the size of the tiger and the order in which the bow was shot. The first person to shoot the tiger received 6 pieces of cotton cloth, which was equivalent to two years of work for a grown man at that time. Also, since the captured tigers were part of the hunter, they could earn a lot of money by selling the skinned skins. At one point, they saw as many as 10,000 San Cheok in Joseon, due to the sheer number and size of the San Cheok eventually entering the royal army as a mixed infantry/light cavalry unit. The vision of such an armed fleet made the garrison alert and soon talks began. The Japanese-Spanish let the Koreans know that their fleet would be dedicated to exploring the area, however, they prohibited the navigation of any foreign ship from the Han River, which gave access to the city of Hanyang and therefore its security was vital. Despite the refusal, the Japanese-Spanish fleet decided to continue and began to navigate through the straits of Ganghwa Island, which give access to the river. Facing the violation of the warned limits, the Korean fortresses opened fire to no avail due to the poor quality compared to the Spanish-Japanese naval guns and naval armor.
The fleet was not seriously damaged even after coming under intense fire for at least 15 minutes in which it could not even hit the ships directly. Admiral Francisco Kuroda in response ordered an intense bombardment in response. The guns of the frigates and Sloops quickly demonstrated the logical result and as predictable as bloody; the walls of most of the fortifications were collapsed causing substantial casualties among the defenders. While the ships unleashed their hell from smoothbore and rifle cannons, landing boats with Marines from the Tercios de Armada disembarked waging a battle against the Korean defenders who were armed with very outdated rifles, like key-locked muskets. matchlock, very different from the standard bolt action rifles of the Spanish imperial army in Japan designed by Centurion Teodoro Murata, officer of the Imperial Army. The rate and firepower of the Murata Infantry Carbine caused the Koreans to withdraw, which was pursued by the Japanese-Spanish marine infantry to the Gwangseonbo fortress. The fortress itself had only three cannons and a surplus of matchlock muskets that were barely a match for the Murata. In the end, the slow reload time of the Korean muskets added to the Muratas carried by the Japanese-Spanish made the walls give way as the Koreans hurled rocks at their attackers. The Japo-Hispanic Marines would end up taking the fortress, General Eo would be assassinated while his flag was taken as a trophy. The ensuing defeat allowed the flotilla to travel up the estate until finally reaching Seoul. The Japanese forces were superior to those of the Koreans among whom they caused an enormous commotion and panic,8 a situation aggravated when Kuroda refused to even receive low-ranking Korean representatives and declared that he had a letter from the Emperor himself which he demanded to be able to deliver personally. to the Emperor, King or other similarly high Korean officials, threatening to deliver the letter by force if not received in a propitious time.
After a month of negotiations, Spain and Joseon signed the agreement with which diplomatic relations between Joseon and Western Christian countries began for the first time. The destruction of Joseon's isolationist walls irreversibly altered Joseon's history and also had an inordinate impact on its culture and society: Politically, Spain forced Joseon to abandon its default policy of avoiding all contact with foreign countries. Westerners and Christians, something that had permeated even in Korean society that by then already considered all European foreigners as 'pagan barbarians', ideas that were initiated and promoted by the government for hundreds of years in use, the breaking of this policy and idealization provoked surprise. among the population. Joseon's opening up to uncontrolled trade with Europe brought with it immense economic instability, as while some businessmen prospered, many more went bankrupt. Unemployment and friction, as well as inflation, were some of the consequences. Coincidentally, major food producers also skyrocketed food prices, and there were numerous incidents between reckless foreign traders being labeled "garbage of the planet" for their price tags. Joseon's monetary system also collapsed. This led to the massive purchase of gold and silver, which inevitably led Joseon to devalue its economy. In the midst of this situation, the class consisting mainly of highly educated civil servants and military officers known as the Yangban began to split into political factions and cliques sympathetic to ideas such as 1. Using Westerners to modernize and stay free. 2. Join the Spanish Empire like Japan did. 3. Ally with a rival of the Spanish Empire like Russia.
Faced with this situation, a particular group of political officials, high-ranking military officers, as well as professional intelligence agents emerged whose real agenda was to campaign for military expansion and the conquest of the Asian continent. This group was called the Society of the Black Dragon. The Black Dragon Society's objective was to ensure Japanese dominance within the peninsula, the main enemy of which was Myeongseong, the wife of King Gojong. Popularly called Min, she was sixteen years old when she married King Gojong, who was fifteen. From the beginning she Min was not very willing to comply with what is traditionally expected of a queen. The young woman herself had no interest in the boring court life and she spent her time reading all the books that fell into her hands, whether they were history, philosophy or religion. The feud between Gojong's father and Min reached the point that Daewongun hinted that she Min was not in good enough health to produce a healthy heir. In the end, after five years of marriage, in 1868 the queen gave birth to a boy, who died three days later. Min was sure that her Daewongun's mother-in-law had caused the baby's death by poisoning. Since then, Min conceived a deep hatred for her mother-in-law. Min began a campaign to win the trust of high officials of the court and placed various members of her clan in key government positions with the aim that her husband Gojong hers could reign alone, without hindrance of any kind. guy. The breaking of isolation served Min's benefit as her mother-in-law left the court and Min took control of her, running the country together with her husband. Everyone, from foreign ambassadors and diplomats to her own courtiers, saw that her sovereign was not going to settle for being a mere "decorative adornment." Well, as with her mother-in-law, she also banished the royal concubine and her son, and began to develop a policy of profound reforms.
These policies saw Joseon trying to modernize and with a strong desire to strengthen its nation. Gojong, motivated by Min who devoured any foreign book that fell into her hands, ended up hiring European officers and soldiers from Prussia as military advisers who trained the Joseon royal army in the European style. In a few years, the infantry was modernized following the Prussian model. The same happened with the cavalry who quickly adopted the Totenkopf as a symbol of elitism and martial prowess for the Royal Guard. Min saw how the Joseon army could compete enough so that a Japanese invasion would not be repeated, so she advocated a thorough westernization of the army. Something frowned upon by conservatives. In the midst of these events, the Treaty of Ganghwa occurred in 1873, a treaty absolutely devoid of advantages for the country since it implied the access of Spain and its Viceroyalties to five Korean ports (Incheon, Busan, Gwangyang, Donghae and Sokcho), which they were forced to open up to trade, permission for Spanish ships to navigate their territorial waters, extraterritorial rights for Spanish citizens in Joseon and even Spanish imperial citizens could buy land on Korean soil without any kind of impediment even as if they were aristocrats. In fact, the signing of this treaty was a humiliation for the nation, which demanded to use the army, an army that was not yet prepared or equipped to even stab its aggressor. An understandable comparison would be the infamous case of "The teenager in the rapist alley", Joseon would be invaded by Spain, it would resist but in the end it would be taken and desecrated. A comparison made by an English newspaper. In these circumstances, the royal government was divided. On one side were the reformists and on the other the conservatives. Min, who had established relations with Russia to try to stop the Spanish, was unaware of the anti-Russian sentiments that were part of his government.
Min wanted to carry out educational and social reforms in Korea, including gender equality, with the aim of giving women full rights, as opposed to being the quasi furniture they were before. Totally in disagreement with the decisions made by the royal government, on December 4, 1874, a small group of soldiers tried to carry out a coup and tried to stop the kings, without success. Three days after the failed coup, one of the main reformist leaders, Kim Okgyun, managed to flee to Japan, but others involved were executed. But things could still get worse. As it happened. The Dragon Society led by Duke Carlos Aritomo discovered Min's plans to deal with the Empire through an alliance with Russia. The informant for this was Kim Okgyn, who was kidnapped drunk and drugged from a Kagoshima tavern and put into a carriage by a smiling man in a dark trench coat and wide-brimmed hat. That man was Hijikata Toshizō, a Ronin belonging to the organized crime Yamato Clan. The Yamato clan was a clan that always provided the military arm for the Black Dragon Society, and its fighters were mostly drawn from an exclusive military training school that took place in an ancient castle in the Mie region. When Kim Okgyun under Japanese ancestral tortures confessed to all of Min's plans. The goal of developing Joseon in government, technology, and the military by using foreign resources to help the nation become stable enough to withstand anticipated increases of foreign invasion. Faced with this revelation, Carlos Aritomo sent a statement to the top leader of the Society in Korea: Mario Goro for the deployment of a group of hitmen to assault the royal residence and end the life of the monarch, who represented a serious threat. for his expansionist plans.
The group of hitmen were called the so-called hitokiri whose meaning was "killer of men", the Hitokiri were elite warriors and widely considered invincible by the people of the criminal underworld. The Hitokiri were Gonzalo Kawakami, Tomas Kirino, Santiago Tanaka, Diego Okada, Samuel Okita, Hernan Saitō, Sebastian Keisuke, and Héctor Tōdō. Following the plan drawn up by Mario Goro, the Hitokiri entered the interior of the enclosure without encountering too many obstacles. Dispose of any courtiers, guards, or servants with lethality. The noise of the swords alerted the queen that she had disguised herself as a lady of the court to go unnoticed. However, an imperial guard defending the palace, seeing that the queen's life was in danger, tried to protect her from her, inadvertently revealing her identity. That fatal mistake led to Min's murder without anyone being able to prevent it. Queen Min and two courtesans were kidnapped and gagged and bound to Incheon, where they boarded a ship flying the Japanese viceregal flag. Inside the ship, the queen would suffer the fate of being raped along with her maidens before being dismembered and thrown into the sea with stones tied to her limbs. Queen Min's head would be presented to Carlos Aritomo as proof of death, moments before being doused with kerosene and burned. After hearing the news of the death of Queen Min, King Gojong and his son, the royal family went into mourning that saw the internal situation in the country worsen. At first they were inclined to withdraw from the country leaving a regency council in command of the country, but then King Gojong declared the Joseon Kingdom extinct, ending the centuries-long reign. Instead, the creation of a new country called the Korean Empire was advocated based on the self-determination of the Korean people. The history of Korea was not over and was about to become much bloodier than even the Imjin War.
Gojong accused the Spanish of the death of his wife and even used the discontent of Korean society against the political and economic intervention of foreigners, combined with xenophobic sentiment against European and Japanese influence. Gojong would supply the isolationist armed groups with weapons to fight against foreign interference that a large part of the nobility despised, although they were officially outlawed and operated outside the law, there were members of the court, who saw in them an instrument to end with foreign rule in the country. In this way, groups such as the sixty righteous armies indirectly saw themselves legitimized to start acting. His subversive activities began in 1878, and his goal was to eliminate any trace of a foreign presence in Korea. The country's embassies soon became targets and, despite being well protected, some were raided and their ambassadors assassinated. The righteous armies, despite being armed and motivated, lacked the training and even organization to deal with Western troops. For this reason, the embassies were assaulted with large numbers that reached the hundreds, however the main ones affected by the conflict were the Christians of Korean origin. Despite being numerous, and unable to flee anywhere, they were subjected to rape, torture and murder. Survivors who took refuge in the embassies described in great detail the violent attacks and atrocities committed against foreigners residing in Korea, ranging from looting, destruction, murder and rape against Christians, their property and even Korean domestic service. This situation was taken advantage of by the Dragon Society, who quickly began to assemble what would be known as the Korean Volunteer Army (KVA).
The KVA was a mixture of various sources, with the same goal: to end the Korean Empire and prosper. They were students and peasants, former troops, and even bandits. The former bandits played an important role by using their skills in the forests and mountains in guerrilla warfare. Most of the middle and high rank officers knew how to speak Spanish or Japanese and had even been baptized. The KVA would be key to the Dragon Society because when the third Imjin War broke out in 1880, they would perform the task of extremely well informing the composition and disposition of the enemy forces. The KVA would undertake in a matter of less than 16 days to seize the major ports of Incheon, Busan, Gwangyang, Donghae and Sokcho armed with Western Japanese equipment and with unexpected ferocity and remarkable success. Korean forces loyal to Gojong who advanced to occupy the ports to fortify them, were met by fire from Murata Rifles and even at least one "St. Étienne" heavy machine gun, developed from some captured American Gatlings, where they formed the basis for a reverse engineered design. The Righteous Armies were stunned to see entire companies of militiamen supported by Western-trained soldiers literally torn to pieces in a matter of seconds by the enormous firepower displayed. In any case, the results were, simply put, impressive. They were also tragic. The casualties made solely by a fighting force of armed and motivated volunteers shook the entire Korean chain of command all the way to Gojong's throne. Gojong decided then, to save the country from him at the cost of his life. He made his son de él Sunjong go to Russia as a refugee. He even made sixty Naegeumwi; Responsible for protecting the king and the royal family, we were to protect his son from him. He only kept forty. It is undeniable that Gojong viewed the Righteous Armies as cannon fodder to distract and weaken the Japanese forces. Gojong trusted his Imperial Korean Armed Forces, though not without some mistrust.
The Imperial Armed Forces were a Western-style army including modern equipment and command system. Although Min had helped establish many military academies in Korea. Gojong disbanded the palace guards (Siwidae) in August 1875 for failing to prevent the Japanese from assassinating Empress Myeongseong. The Korean Empire's military system consisted of imperial guards, central troops, and provincial troops. It consisted of infantry, artillery and cavalry, distributed around 44 barracks, formally training in marksmanship and exercises. Alongside these barracks was the Yeonmugongwon (연무공원, 鍊武公院), the Korean Empire Military Academy, with an officer training program to begin to bring the Imperial Korean Army on par with modern armies. By 1880, the Imperial Korean Army comprised the central army and the provincial armies. Made for strengthening the defense of the Korean Empire. The backbone of the central army is the Imperial Guard consisting of the Attendant, the Retinue, Guards, and the Capital Guard. The central army was directly under the command of a member of the Junta Marshal tasked with defending the emperor and the capital city of Hanyang. Provincial armies and garrison guards defend the borders. With the central and provincial armies, the army grew enormously to 40,000. However, Korea only had a single modern ship: the KIS Yangmu purchased from the British Empire who had used it as a cargo ship and simply armed it with cannons from twenty years ago. The remainder of the Imperial navy were Junk sailing ships that were equipped with carronades and other weapons for naval or pirate uses typically called "war junks" or "armed junks" by Western navies.
The KVA's capture of Busan made it relatively easy and safe to land up to 20,000 Japanese troops under the command of Manuel Ōmura. The landing was so successful that some in the Korean camp became suspicious of anyone who did not take up arms. In the time it took Omura to advance, the KVA proceeded to build in the ports under its control different and extremely strong defensive positions than the Koreans were used to: trench lines, blockhouses even barbed wire protected the ports. On June 25, 1880, Omura started what would be called "The Road to Yalu". An offensive that soon reached mythical proportions, with some stories reaching all KVA units even the border posts on the other side of the Yali River. With each battle, the destruction caused by the Japanese grew, the lethality of the attacks doubled, and the effect on morale among the Korean provincial troops was magnified. At times, the mere appearance of a light cavalry column was enough to cause blind panic among virtually all the forces in the area. Balancing these large Japanese advantages, at least somewhat, was the fact that Korean troops were fighting a defensive campaign, often from fortified positions, including old castles. While the garrisons were mostly made up of peasant recruits with no comparable Japanese training, there were enough veteran soldiers mixed in with the fort garrisons that it ensured a certain degree of willingness to fight to the death as if they tried to flee they risked being killed. by the allies and the certainty of being killed by some officer even members of the Righteous Armies who had turned quasi-bandits. Although far from the perfect method of ensuring fighting spirit, the method was brutally effective.
The orders from Gojong and the imperial high command were clear; stop the invader and drive him back into the sea. The fact that the Koreans had not even been able to drive the KVA out of their important ports did not even concern the command to Gojong. Most of the soldiers and conscripts accepted the orders. Most did not even consider that a different position was possible as the heralds and preachers used their demagogy to remind Koreans what had happened with the arrival of foreigners: the lack of food, the chaos or the whispered words of their parents. about economic concerns. Others even went as far as exaggerating the massacres the Japanese carried out during the invasion in 1592 motivating them to defend and fight even die so as not to see their children or grandchildren live as slaves to foreigners. It was with these thoughts that the Korean troops prepared for the battle of Seoul. The winter of 1880-81 saw the environs of Seoul resounding with the pounding of the Trubia artillery batteries that began as soon as dawn broke. For long weeks, Seoul was subjected to an apocalyptic bombardment to the point that many traces of the wall of stone, wood and other materials, built to protect the city of Seoul against invaders, had collapsed and were more rubble piles that served as embankments. from where the men, women and children of the city fought like beasts to defend themselves against the invaders, be it wielding rifles, muskets, pistols, swords, spears even stones and clubs, it was violence in its purest and most primitive state. At first, the Japanese soldiers expected token resistance from the Koreans and fierce resistance from the Righteous Armies. But in Seoul things changed, it took several incursion actions to know that in reality they mainly served the King out of fanaticism and xenophobic hatred.
Once this situation became apparent, the decision to inform the troops was almost automatic. From leadership to senior commanders, the message was: “Warn the men that all enemy troops are likely to hold out to the best of their ability. The message from the Legates to their top field commanders was: “The enemy forces show little tendency to break off the action until they have been eliminated in their entirety. The troops are suffering losses comparable to the troops during the Spanish-American War. Adapt accordingly." This message continued to distill until it was delivered to the troops by their senior NCO. By then, the message was short and to the point: "Expect these bastards to fight like hell." For soldiers, the real meaning of this The statement was clear. The enemy did not give up, could not be trusted, and the only way to return home alive was to make sure you did not leave any alive behind you. This message would reflect what would become known as the Seoul Massacre. The defenders of Seoul were purely professional units and exceptionally well-trained and equipped, but they were young, which put them almost on a par with the Japanese, fighting was a clash of well-trained and disciplined but inexperienced men against highly motivated semi-experienced troops.The result was fierce and intense.Seoul troops began to suffer losses almost immediately, in many cases long before they that they were in formation. Korean Guard units had to fight to organize and advance towards their objectives as they marched through the streets under artillery fire and fire. However, the Japanese did not have problems like the Koreans. The method of breaking through the Coran defenses was simplicity itself. If the Koreans used the buildings as cover, the Japanese would burn them to the ground.
Any house or building that was used to fire on advancing troops was targeted with incendiary alcohol bottles. The resulting fires destroyed almost 90% of the city of Seoul while killing much of the civilian population. However, heroically as Guard units held their positions with little flinch, whether out of patriotic fervor or simple military discipline, the Imperial Guard proved to be remarkably disciplined, well led, and loyal to their monarch. After the war, Japanese veterans would say that if the Koreans had been adequately equipped to the level of the Scandinavian, English or even Taiping forces, the invasion efforts would have been much more difficult, if not impossible. Instead, the efforts of the guard troops, equipped mostly with infantry weapons older than the men who wield them, can only be said to be tragically heroic. However, Japanese veterans would put them close to the level of an elite force. The Japanese at first thought that the Korean Imperial Guard would be a poorly disciplined unit or even without the necessary military aggressiveness. However, it was the opposite, the sense of honor after the death of Empress Min considered the "Warrior Queen" of hers was so deep, but the unit did not show a tendency to lose discipline or be overzealous in pursuing the units. japanese. What he had shown instead was an almost terrifying level of professional detachment towards casualties, both his own and enemy, and an iron discipline. The battle for the Imperial Palace was hard and relentless, reaching the melee level on several occasions with many Japanese officers drawing their military swords (Guntō). Losses on both sides were commensurate with the ferocity of the engagement, with little margin or mercy.
The fall of Seoul in 1881 symbolized the fall of the Korean Empire and Japan's half-millennial dream of subjugating Korea. Korea became a Captain General subjugated by Japan and its Viceroy while soon, waves of businessmen and veterans began to acquire land. The KVA became the base for the army garrisoned in Korea at the same time that many members of the Dragon Society would end up becoming noble figures in the new imperial province that was soon subjected to the exploitation of the conquerors. Soon a mercantilist colonial system was born and led to a focus on building major transportation infrastructure on the Korean peninsula for the purpose of extracting and exploiting natural resources. This resulted in larger port facilities, an extensive rail network, including a rail junction from the southern port city of Busan through the capital Seoul and north towards the Chinese border developed. This transport infrastructure not only facilitated a mercantilist system, but also a colonial-type economy for the extraction of raw materials (wood), food (mainly rice and fish) and mineral resources (coal and iron ore), but also as a strategic necessity to control Korea and move large amounts of troops and materials across the peninsula in a short period of time. Many Japanese settlers interested in acquiring agricultural land in Korea, managed to acquire land where they would act almost like landlords where they would oppress the Korean peasants by forcing them to send large quantities of rice to Japan, while the Korean population suffered a serious food shortage. The Korean people's standard of living deteriorated drastically; Thousands of Korean farmers were forced to abandon their roots, marry with japanese or spaniards, even learning Spanish or Japanese to seek better living conditions.
Mostly this chapter is like a Olivier salad between Japan opening borders, Korean IRL incidents and a great brutal original war. I was thinking spend some more brutality ya know, mass rapes, mass murders and more mass destruction. But i thinked wth Min fate is enough... I mean, see how Shinsengumi become the sword of an society who want conquer more lands its something very useful for future and sure some people know that Hitokiri and Samurais. Specially if you see Ruroni Kenshin and Gintama.
I loved this chapter. Heck is an interesting take on Spanish conquest of Korea even if many effort is did by the Japanese 
And more you gonna love if i tell you i am thinking start doing book of my works like Elysium. Look for exemple Mussolini Footprint, Death of Russia or American/Anglo Nazi War... they are in amazon if i remember well.I loved this chapter. Heck is an interesting take on Spanish conquest of Korea even if many effort is did by the Japanese
The Golden Years
The 1880s ushered in a golden age where industry brought profit and pride alike. At the same time it was a period of scientific and technological development in which it transformed largely rural agrarian societies into urban and industrialized societies. Goods that had once been carefully crafted by hand began to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories, thanks to the introduction of new machines and techniques in textiles, ironmaking, and other industries. Efficient mechanized industrialization meant that new textile factories could meet the growing demand for cloth both at home and abroad. In addition to textiles, the steel industry also embraced new innovations. However, the rise of large factories turned smaller towns into large cities in the span of decades. This rapid urbanization brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities suffered from pollution, inadequate sanitation, squalid housing conditions, and a lack of potable water. Meanwhile, even as industrialization increased overall economic output and improved living standards for the upper and middle classes, poor and working-class people continued to struggle. The mechanization of labor created by technological innovation had made working in factories increasingly tedious (and sometimes dangerous), and many slave laborers, including children, were forced to work long hours for woefully low wages. This led to the rise of an ideology created by scholars Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels called communism. This ideology had as its objective the construction of a classless society in which all the means of production and everything that is produced is the common property of all members of society. Private property is replaced by public property.
Communism was an ideology equalizing redemption with its own original sin (the exploitation of one person by another) and paradise (communist society). The main enemy of the only progressive class, the proletariat, were the exploiting classes, above all the bourgeoisie. Communism considered the determination of the supposed laws of development of human society to be the greatest achievement of Marx and Engels.
It was in the midst of these years when, in 1885, the first automobile was born: a self-propelled vehicle designed to transport people or goods without the need for rails. Powered by a two-stroke internal combustion engine and later a four-stroke, Karl Friedrich Benz, an Austrian born in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. The first car model built by Carl Benz in 1885 would receive the name of Benz Patent-Motorwagen ("Benz patented motor car", translated from German). The initial cost of its manufacture in 1885 was 600 Austrian gold Gulden, approximately 150 Spanish dollars. The first car driver was, ironically for the time, Bertha Benz, Karl's wife and investor in the project who, without notifying or speaking to her husband, made the first car trip in history, taking their sons Eugen and Richard ( fifteen and fourteen years old, respectively). The trip that was about 96 km, between Mannheim, Heidelberg, Wiesloch (where he refueled -petroleum ether- at the local pharmacy -making it the first gas station in history-) and Pforzheim (in the Black Forest, where his mother) allowed hundreds of people to see its capacity as a means of transportation and its ease of handling. Soon, Benz ended up getting together with another engineer Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler of Bavarian origin and they ended up forming Daimler-Benz AG. The first manufacturer of automobiles and vehicle engines. However, the automotive revolution had begun. Daimler-Benz were soon followed by the English Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the Prussian Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren AG (NAMAG), the American General Motors Company (GMC), the British All-British Car Company and finally the Spanish Hispano-Suiza and " Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo" (SEAT)
Juan de la Cruz "El Duque de Timbuktu"
Oddly enough, automobiles collaborated in the effort to colonize the African territory. The vision of religious men, nationalists and adventurers, buying motorized vehicles along with firearms with hundreds of bullets and supplies to launch into the colonization of the dark continent. The vision of the inhabitants of the metropolises of Spain, the British, America, Scandinavia and England towards these adventurers was that they were tough and masculine men, worthy of fantasies comparable to Hernan Cortes, Pizarro or Valdivia, while other more enlightened people saw them as stupid. with hardly any intelligence. In response, the Adventurers viewed those who criticized them as ungrateful, cowards who would not take a blow like real men. Cities such as Dakar, Timbuktu and Agadez were soon controlled by chieftains backed by militias whose objective was to protect the nearby properties and mines of the colonial cities from the threat posed by Bedouin tribes led by advancing native warlords. in endless wide columns in which the modern was mixed with the medieval; In them you could see Tuareg horsemen on their disheveled mounts with the loot strapped to the saddle with carts pulled by starving horses where the families of the warriors lived. Armed from spears and bone bows to Spanish or Liberian bolt-action rifles. A notable event would be the Battle of Timbuktu in 1893 where a coalition of seven Warlords attacked the city protected by a Cacique named Juan de la Cruz supported by around four hundred armed men. The battle would see the first deployment of self-propelled fighting vehicles when a series of mechanics decided to add 7mm armor made up of sheet metal, along with 1890 Saint Étienne machine guns based on the British Hotchkiss machine-gun.
The Battle of Timbuktu saw how the traditional ghazzi tactics, that is, surprise raids made up of traditional camel-backed war parties of the tribes that traveled great distances in order to attack the enemies, were responded to by motorized vehicles, even armored vehicles. armed with automatic weapons. The Battle of Timbuktu ended with twenty improvised combat cars chasing hundreds of horsemen fleeing through the desert for miles, even there they served as proof of the effectiveness of these vehicles. Soon, a new sport arose among these adventurers: Las Algaradas, also called razzias; It would consist of carrying out violent group raids with the aim of capturing slaves, ethnic or religious cleansing and tribal intimidation. The once luxurious automobiles came to acquire different types: from luxurious like the SEAT Inca to trucks like the Hispano-Suiza "Cid".
If something stood out from the Golden Years it would be the birth of a refreshing and invigorating drink that would come from three Valencian friends named Bautista Aparici, Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz. These three friends in their hometown, a town located south of the city of Valencia called Aielo de Malferit, built and founded a distillery with the aim of creating liqueurs that would come to stand out for the originality of its liqueurs: perfect love, pleasure of ladies, taxpayer's tears or old woman's milk, a sweet punch with hints of cinnamon and lemon. It would be the connections and money of Bautista Aparici, the chemical knowledge of Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz, who would make these artisanal liqueurs sold at all kinds of weddings or special events as authentic rarities. However, the jewel in the crown would be a mysterious black and sweet drink created with Kola nut and coca leaves from Peru that would receive the name Kola-Coca. The drink would gain popularity especially in border areas where something was needed to cool the throat while motivating the "workers" in their mines, quarries or even factories. Such would be the success of the drink that was served at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889, reaching several liters of the drink at the top of the Bourbon Tower, built by the Franco-Spanish civil engineer Alejandro Gustavo Eiffel. The fame of Kola-Coca, which was publicized as "The Pleasure of Ladies and Men" reached the point that the United States would try to copy the recipe in one of the espionage maneuvers where the businessman "galvanized Yankee" Caleb Davis Bradham decided to try your luck with a blend of kola nut extract, vanilla and "rare oils". The result would be a refreshing drink that would only gain popularity as a digestive aid and even a laxative, due to the lack of alcohol it would gain popularity among the temperance movement.
Bautista Aparici, Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz
However, there would be a clear corporate competition between the Spanish Kola-Coca and the one known as the American Brad Drink, which would later be called Pepsi-Cola.
Communism was an ideology equalizing redemption with its own original sin (the exploitation of one person by another) and paradise (communist society). The main enemy of the only progressive class, the proletariat, were the exploiting classes, above all the bourgeoisie. Communism considered the determination of the supposed laws of development of human society to be the greatest achievement of Marx and Engels.
It was in the midst of these years when, in 1885, the first automobile was born: a self-propelled vehicle designed to transport people or goods without the need for rails. Powered by a two-stroke internal combustion engine and later a four-stroke, Karl Friedrich Benz, an Austrian born in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg. The first car model built by Carl Benz in 1885 would receive the name of Benz Patent-Motorwagen ("Benz patented motor car", translated from German). The initial cost of its manufacture in 1885 was 600 Austrian gold Gulden, approximately 150 Spanish dollars. The first car driver was, ironically for the time, Bertha Benz, Karl's wife and investor in the project who, without notifying or speaking to her husband, made the first car trip in history, taking their sons Eugen and Richard ( fifteen and fourteen years old, respectively). The trip that was about 96 km, between Mannheim, Heidelberg, Wiesloch (where he refueled -petroleum ether- at the local pharmacy -making it the first gas station in history-) and Pforzheim (in the Black Forest, where his mother) allowed hundreds of people to see its capacity as a means of transportation and its ease of handling. Soon, Benz ended up getting together with another engineer Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler of Bavarian origin and they ended up forming Daimler-Benz AG. The first manufacturer of automobiles and vehicle engines. However, the automotive revolution had begun. Daimler-Benz were soon followed by the English Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the Prussian Norddeutsche Automobil und Motoren AG (NAMAG), the American General Motors Company (GMC), the British All-British Car Company and finally the Spanish Hispano-Suiza and " Sociedad Española de Automóviles de Turismo" (SEAT)
Juan de la Cruz "El Duque de Timbuktu"
Oddly enough, automobiles collaborated in the effort to colonize the African territory. The vision of religious men, nationalists and adventurers, buying motorized vehicles along with firearms with hundreds of bullets and supplies to launch into the colonization of the dark continent. The vision of the inhabitants of the metropolises of Spain, the British, America, Scandinavia and England towards these adventurers was that they were tough and masculine men, worthy of fantasies comparable to Hernan Cortes, Pizarro or Valdivia, while other more enlightened people saw them as stupid. with hardly any intelligence. In response, the Adventurers viewed those who criticized them as ungrateful, cowards who would not take a blow like real men. Cities such as Dakar, Timbuktu and Agadez were soon controlled by chieftains backed by militias whose objective was to protect the nearby properties and mines of the colonial cities from the threat posed by Bedouin tribes led by advancing native warlords. in endless wide columns in which the modern was mixed with the medieval; In them you could see Tuareg horsemen on their disheveled mounts with the loot strapped to the saddle with carts pulled by starving horses where the families of the warriors lived. Armed from spears and bone bows to Spanish or Liberian bolt-action rifles. A notable event would be the Battle of Timbuktu in 1893 where a coalition of seven Warlords attacked the city protected by a Cacique named Juan de la Cruz supported by around four hundred armed men. The battle would see the first deployment of self-propelled fighting vehicles when a series of mechanics decided to add 7mm armor made up of sheet metal, along with 1890 Saint Étienne machine guns based on the British Hotchkiss machine-gun.
The Battle of Timbuktu saw how the traditional ghazzi tactics, that is, surprise raids made up of traditional camel-backed war parties of the tribes that traveled great distances in order to attack the enemies, were responded to by motorized vehicles, even armored vehicles. armed with automatic weapons. The Battle of Timbuktu ended with twenty improvised combat cars chasing hundreds of horsemen fleeing through the desert for miles, even there they served as proof of the effectiveness of these vehicles. Soon, a new sport arose among these adventurers: Las Algaradas, also called razzias; It would consist of carrying out violent group raids with the aim of capturing slaves, ethnic or religious cleansing and tribal intimidation. The once luxurious automobiles came to acquire different types: from luxurious like the SEAT Inca to trucks like the Hispano-Suiza "Cid".
If something stood out from the Golden Years it would be the birth of a refreshing and invigorating drink that would come from three Valencian friends named Bautista Aparici, Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz. These three friends in their hometown, a town located south of the city of Valencia called Aielo de Malferit, built and founded a distillery with the aim of creating liqueurs that would come to stand out for the originality of its liqueurs: perfect love, pleasure of ladies, taxpayer's tears or old woman's milk, a sweet punch with hints of cinnamon and lemon. It would be the connections and money of Bautista Aparici, the chemical knowledge of Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz, who would make these artisanal liqueurs sold at all kinds of weddings or special events as authentic rarities. However, the jewel in the crown would be a mysterious black and sweet drink created with Kola nut and coca leaves from Peru that would receive the name Kola-Coca. The drink would gain popularity especially in border areas where something was needed to cool the throat while motivating the "workers" in their mines, quarries or even factories. Such would be the success of the drink that was served at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889, reaching several liters of the drink at the top of the Bourbon Tower, built by the Franco-Spanish civil engineer Alejandro Gustavo Eiffel. The fame of Kola-Coca, which was publicized as "The Pleasure of Ladies and Men" reached the point that the United States would try to copy the recipe in one of the espionage maneuvers where the businessman "galvanized Yankee" Caleb Davis Bradham decided to try your luck with a blend of kola nut extract, vanilla and "rare oils". The result would be a refreshing drink that would only gain popularity as a digestive aid and even a laxative, due to the lack of alcohol it would gain popularity among the temperance movement.
Bautista Aparici, Ricardo Sanz and Enrique Ortiz
However, there would be a clear corporate competition between the Spanish Kola-Coca and the one known as the American Brad Drink, which would later be called Pepsi-Cola.
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You want know the most fun fact....Spain got Coke and the US was left with Pepsi?
We're reaching levels of evil never thought possible!
Its true. Spain was the first in invent "Coke", and John Pemberton basically steal the receipt.
El origen secreto de la Coca Cola, en un pueblo de España - BBC News Mundo
El misterio de la fórmula de la Coca Cola se funde con otro misterio, el de su origen. La bebida señala a un farmaceútico estadounidense como su inventor. Pero en un pueblo valenciano existe otra versión.
www.bbc.com
An Vision of a Future: Nikolai.
The SEAT Automobile traveled the paved roads of the Iberian Peninsula with the tranquility that five hundred years ago a rider would travel the dusty roads full of gravel trodden by countless feet and wheels. Coming from the North, he had a vision of Madrid, the capital of the Spanish Empire. The vision was of public buildings of marble and tiles, low-rise office blocks, parks and wide avenues, the Ciudad Universitaria with its various university campuses alongside the pleasant, leafy suburbs with the gardens for which the city was famous. Beyond stretched the world of industrial corporations, acre after acre, of webs of highways, rail sidings, monorails, landing pads for cargo aircraft. The sky was falling into night, but there was no sleep below, only a restlessness filled with the light of arc lamps and the roaring flares of blast furnaces; factory windows carpeted the low-lying hills, shifts worked twenty-four hours a day in so-called Rotating Shifts where employees work two 12-hour shifts in a row, followed by two days off. Over the skies of Madrid a large self-propelled mass was flying lighter than air. The surveillance and control airship toured the city with searchlights that would illuminate the city squares at night. The SEAT toured the wide avenues, an urban design created after the War of Independence ensuring maximum simple circulation, without abandoning aesthetics. In the center of Madrid, was the Plaza España with a monument to the Imperial victory. A hundred summers had turned the bronze green and faded the marble pedestal; around them were gardens of unearthly beauty, where children played among the flower beds.
The statue showed a group of soldiers from the ancestral tercios; their weapons were pikes of more than four meters, thin swords accompanied by the arquebuses of the 16th century. Their leader was in front and armed with a rapier along with a Biscayan dagger, also called "misericordias" or "quitapenas". Escorted, on both sides were two presa dogs that a dog expert would identify as Spanish Alanos. Beneath it, in gold letters, were the words: "To the immortal soldiers of the Empire." That was his monument; Madrid itself was a monument to the vanquished, like the other cities that stretched a thousand kilometers north to Brittany; so were the mines, plantations, and ranches from Tierra del Fuego to Cascadia. The man was a journalist brought from Russia: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Botkin. At the gates of a hotel, two agents of the Cuerpo de Policia Nacional (CNP) were waiting, judging by their uniforms in different shades of beige. When the vehicle began to park in front of the agents, they threw cigarettes and got into the SEAT moments before greeting him with a firm handshake respectfully but without servility. The Agents were big men, as tall as the Russian. They both appeared to be in their late thirties and held the rank of Master Sergeant. They were very alike: hard, muscular faces; armed with the prestigious Llama M-82 pistols in service since 1982, ten years ago. One was pale as beach sand, the other with green eyes and tan who could have passed for a slave had it not been for the shaven skull with a patterned tattoo. Legionnaires in the neck. The car continued on its way through the crowded streets in the morning. Men, women and children who did the same activities that they would do in London, New York, Berlin, Stockholm, even Moscow. The car window was rolled down with a crank and a soft smell of pine and freshness entered the car. The Spanish strove to prevent modern industry and urbanism from polluting the air or water too much; people had to breathe and drink, too, after all. Still, it was a relief to smell the breath of the goddess of spring overcoming the stench of gasoline and industrial-age progress.
The four-lane paved surface of the highway stretched out directly to meet the horizon that bowled out around it; Waist-high fields of baby corn whizzed by, each giving an instant glimpse through long, leafy tunnels floored with brown plowed earth. The blowing air smelled dusty and hot and green, and the sea of corn shimmered as the leaves rippled. They stopped at a way station with a CEPSA Corporation advertising sign on the side of the road where he worked. A man with a Canarian accent was glad to see him; Nikolai was not surprised, remembering how light passenger traffic had been. Most of the vehicles had been trailers (heavy transporters pulling articulated cargo trailers) or plantation vans heading to train stations with produce; once there was a long convoy of wheeled personnel carriers carrying infantry from the "Guerrero" Military Base to the training camps in the mountains. He was walking, stretching his legs and gazing absently at the herds of cattle grazing in the surrounding fields; he listened to the silence and the rustling of the eucalyptus leaves that framed the pleasant low colored brick buildings with their round stained-glass windows; he sat in the empty courtyard and ate a satisfying freshly bought lunch of a plate of potato omelette that was more like a cake, the difference between an omelette between countries was noticeable and amusing. The agents amused themselves by smoking away from the gasoline pumps and talking with the worker who was drinking a beer from the Spanish brand Estrella Galicia. An hour would pass, until getting back in the SEAT, they went to Valdelagua, an urbanization on the outskirts of Madrid and famous for the large mansions it houses and for being the home of the rich and famous.
It was still noon when they turned under the high stone arch of the doors, the wheels of the SEAT creaking on the smooth and crushed rock, protected by a security post, with a detachment of guards from the private security company "Special Security Services for Physical "who carried CETME C-63 assault rifles with optical modifications and magazine holders. The Avenida del districto aristocratas was flanked by oaks, whose enormous branches gathered twenty meters above their heads; the lower slopes of the surrounding hills were also planted with oak trees. Neighborhood electric vehicles with public workers heading in, hoes and tools hunched over their shoulders, some stopping and trudging on yard repairs or even stopping at private homes. Others stopped to watch curiously as the vehicle passed; Nikolai could hear the low, rhythmic song of a work crew. The SEAT crossed a bridge with a channel of crystalline waters with children playing in it, the barking of some dogs from the same direction indicated that the children were playing with dogs. Finally, the car turned onto a steep driveway and they were passing through gardens below a large mansion. The mansion had been built into the side of a hill (a Neomilitarist design popular with urban financial areas and wealthy residential districts, where cool and menacing elegance and formality, highlighted by the visible presence of militaristic accents, are the distinguishing features. ) and still offered a memorable sight. The rocky slope had been terraced for lawns, flower beds, ornamental trees, and fountains; A half-hectare forest grew on the steep slope behind. The mansion itself was ashlar blocks of honey-white stone, a three-story central block fronted with white marble columns and topped with a pitched roof of pink tile; there were lower wings on each side: arched colonnades that supported the second-story balconies.
When the SEAT parked near a group of cars with flags or luxury like Italian, French, even a few Scandinavian brands. Men could be seen arguing while smoking Cuban cigars while around some children in uniforms of the Organización Juvenil Española (OJE). Nikolai took a deep breath and opened the car door, tossed his luggage to the ground, and jumped to the surface of the road. The air enveloped him, cool and clean, with the smell of roses and falling water; bread was baking somewhere and there was wood smoke from what looked like barbecues. The CNP Agents came out in their bright uniforms and with long strides up the wide black stone steps, the hard soles of their high boots clattering. The house slaves serving as servants bowed like a wavy field and there were genuine smiles of welcome. He could see beautiful women adorned with rubies who would be worthy of adorning clerical staffs, girls in princess dresses but behind it, the enslaved servants of campaigns in Africa, Asia and even the Balkans.
The statue showed a group of soldiers from the ancestral tercios; their weapons were pikes of more than four meters, thin swords accompanied by the arquebuses of the 16th century. Their leader was in front and armed with a rapier along with a Biscayan dagger, also called "misericordias" or "quitapenas". Escorted, on both sides were two presa dogs that a dog expert would identify as Spanish Alanos. Beneath it, in gold letters, were the words: "To the immortal soldiers of the Empire." That was his monument; Madrid itself was a monument to the vanquished, like the other cities that stretched a thousand kilometers north to Brittany; so were the mines, plantations, and ranches from Tierra del Fuego to Cascadia. The man was a journalist brought from Russia: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Botkin. At the gates of a hotel, two agents of the Cuerpo de Policia Nacional (CNP) were waiting, judging by their uniforms in different shades of beige. When the vehicle began to park in front of the agents, they threw cigarettes and got into the SEAT moments before greeting him with a firm handshake respectfully but without servility. The Agents were big men, as tall as the Russian. They both appeared to be in their late thirties and held the rank of Master Sergeant. They were very alike: hard, muscular faces; armed with the prestigious Llama M-82 pistols in service since 1982, ten years ago. One was pale as beach sand, the other with green eyes and tan who could have passed for a slave had it not been for the shaven skull with a patterned tattoo. Legionnaires in the neck. The car continued on its way through the crowded streets in the morning. Men, women and children who did the same activities that they would do in London, New York, Berlin, Stockholm, even Moscow. The car window was rolled down with a crank and a soft smell of pine and freshness entered the car. The Spanish strove to prevent modern industry and urbanism from polluting the air or water too much; people had to breathe and drink, too, after all. Still, it was a relief to smell the breath of the goddess of spring overcoming the stench of gasoline and industrial-age progress.
The four-lane paved surface of the highway stretched out directly to meet the horizon that bowled out around it; Waist-high fields of baby corn whizzed by, each giving an instant glimpse through long, leafy tunnels floored with brown plowed earth. The blowing air smelled dusty and hot and green, and the sea of corn shimmered as the leaves rippled. They stopped at a way station with a CEPSA Corporation advertising sign on the side of the road where he worked. A man with a Canarian accent was glad to see him; Nikolai was not surprised, remembering how light passenger traffic had been. Most of the vehicles had been trailers (heavy transporters pulling articulated cargo trailers) or plantation vans heading to train stations with produce; once there was a long convoy of wheeled personnel carriers carrying infantry from the "Guerrero" Military Base to the training camps in the mountains. He was walking, stretching his legs and gazing absently at the herds of cattle grazing in the surrounding fields; he listened to the silence and the rustling of the eucalyptus leaves that framed the pleasant low colored brick buildings with their round stained-glass windows; he sat in the empty courtyard and ate a satisfying freshly bought lunch of a plate of potato omelette that was more like a cake, the difference between an omelette between countries was noticeable and amusing. The agents amused themselves by smoking away from the gasoline pumps and talking with the worker who was drinking a beer from the Spanish brand Estrella Galicia. An hour would pass, until getting back in the SEAT, they went to Valdelagua, an urbanization on the outskirts of Madrid and famous for the large mansions it houses and for being the home of the rich and famous.
It was still noon when they turned under the high stone arch of the doors, the wheels of the SEAT creaking on the smooth and crushed rock, protected by a security post, with a detachment of guards from the private security company "Special Security Services for Physical "who carried CETME C-63 assault rifles with optical modifications and magazine holders. The Avenida del districto aristocratas was flanked by oaks, whose enormous branches gathered twenty meters above their heads; the lower slopes of the surrounding hills were also planted with oak trees. Neighborhood electric vehicles with public workers heading in, hoes and tools hunched over their shoulders, some stopping and trudging on yard repairs or even stopping at private homes. Others stopped to watch curiously as the vehicle passed; Nikolai could hear the low, rhythmic song of a work crew. The SEAT crossed a bridge with a channel of crystalline waters with children playing in it, the barking of some dogs from the same direction indicated that the children were playing with dogs. Finally, the car turned onto a steep driveway and they were passing through gardens below a large mansion. The mansion had been built into the side of a hill (a Neomilitarist design popular with urban financial areas and wealthy residential districts, where cool and menacing elegance and formality, highlighted by the visible presence of militaristic accents, are the distinguishing features. ) and still offered a memorable sight. The rocky slope had been terraced for lawns, flower beds, ornamental trees, and fountains; A half-hectare forest grew on the steep slope behind. The mansion itself was ashlar blocks of honey-white stone, a three-story central block fronted with white marble columns and topped with a pitched roof of pink tile; there were lower wings on each side: arched colonnades that supported the second-story balconies.
When the SEAT parked near a group of cars with flags or luxury like Italian, French, even a few Scandinavian brands. Men could be seen arguing while smoking Cuban cigars while around some children in uniforms of the Organización Juvenil Española (OJE). Nikolai took a deep breath and opened the car door, tossed his luggage to the ground, and jumped to the surface of the road. The air enveloped him, cool and clean, with the smell of roses and falling water; bread was baking somewhere and there was wood smoke from what looked like barbecues. The CNP Agents came out in their bright uniforms and with long strides up the wide black stone steps, the hard soles of their high boots clattering. The house slaves serving as servants bowed like a wavy field and there were genuine smiles of welcome. He could see beautiful women adorned with rubies who would be worthy of adorning clerical staffs, girls in princess dresses but behind it, the enslaved servants of campaigns in Africa, Asia and even the Balkans.
I gonna say. Nope. But they don't avoid the rise of companies from that regiones.
IMPERIAL CELEBRATIONS AND RANKS OF THE IMPERIAL SPANISH GOVERNMENT.
OFFICIAL FESTIVALS OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE.
January 1: New Year's Day
January 6th. Day of the Three Kings of the East.
February 2: Candlemas Day.
Feb 8 – Feb 13: Carnival.
March 21: Viceroyalty of Louisiana Pride Day.
April 2 – April 9: Holy Week.
April 9: Viceroyalty of Appalachia Pride Day.
April 17: Day of the Victorious Revolution of the Spanish.
May 2: Day of the Madrid Uprising.
May 6: Viceroyalty of Italy Pride Day.
April 22: Viceroyalty of Brazil Pride Day.
April 29: Viceroyalty of Australia Pride Day.
June 18: Viceroyalty of France Pride Day.
June 21:Viceroyalty of Morocco Pride Day.
June 24: Viceroyalty of Peru Pride Day.
August 3: Viceroyalty of New Spain Pride Day.
September 27: Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada Pride Day.
October 12: National Holiday of Spain.
October 21: Viceroyalty of Japan Pride Day.
October 27: Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Pride Day.
November 1: All Saints Day.
November 2: Day of the Dead / Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.
December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
25th December, Christmas.
December 31: New Year's Eve
RANKS OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE GOVERNMENT
NATIONAL LEVEL
HEAD OF STATE
King / Emperor of Spain
THE CABINET
President of the Council of Ministers.
Minister of State
Minister of Justice.
Minister of external affairs
Minister of the Interior
Minister of Army
Minister of Navy
Minister of Air
Ministry of Overseas
Minister of Industry and Commerce
Minister of Agriculture and Labor
Minister of Education and Fine Arts
Minister of Public Works and Development.
VIRROYALTY LEVEL
THE OFFICE OF THE VICEROY
The Viceroy
The Presidente-gobernador
THE VIRROYALTY CABINET
The Hearing judges
Governors
Alcalde mayor
Corregidores
- THE LOCAL LEVEL -
THE OFFICE OF CABILDO
Alcalde de primer voto | First mayor
Alcalde de segundo voto | Second mayor
THE MUNICIPALITY LEADERSHIP
Teniente a guerra
Síndicos
January 1: New Year's Day
January 6th. Day of the Three Kings of the East.
February 2: Candlemas Day.
Feb 8 – Feb 13: Carnival.
March 21: Viceroyalty of Louisiana Pride Day.
April 2 – April 9: Holy Week.
April 9: Viceroyalty of Appalachia Pride Day.
April 17: Day of the Victorious Revolution of the Spanish.
May 2: Day of the Madrid Uprising.
May 6: Viceroyalty of Italy Pride Day.
April 22: Viceroyalty of Brazil Pride Day.
April 29: Viceroyalty of Australia Pride Day.
June 18: Viceroyalty of France Pride Day.
June 21:Viceroyalty of Morocco Pride Day.
June 24: Viceroyalty of Peru Pride Day.
August 3: Viceroyalty of New Spain Pride Day.
September 27: Viceroyalty of Nueva Granada Pride Day.
October 12: National Holiday of Spain.
October 21: Viceroyalty of Japan Pride Day.
October 27: Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata Pride Day.
November 1: All Saints Day.
November 2: Day of the Dead / Commemoration of the Faithful Departed.
December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.
25th December, Christmas.
December 31: New Year's Eve
RANKS OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE GOVERNMENT
NATIONAL LEVEL
HEAD OF STATE
King / Emperor of Spain
THE CABINET
President of the Council of Ministers.
Minister of State
Minister of Justice.
Minister of external affairs
Minister of the Interior
Minister of Army
Minister of Navy
Minister of Air
Ministry of Overseas
Minister of Industry and Commerce
Minister of Agriculture and Labor
Minister of Education and Fine Arts
Minister of Public Works and Development.
VIRROYALTY LEVEL
THE OFFICE OF THE VICEROY
The Viceroy
The Presidente-gobernador
THE VIRROYALTY CABINET
The Hearing judges
Governors
Alcalde mayor
Corregidores
- THE LOCAL LEVEL -
THE OFFICE OF CABILDO
Alcalde de primer voto | First mayor
Alcalde de segundo voto | Second mayor
THE MUNICIPALITY LEADERSHIP
Teniente a guerra
Síndicos
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The First Anglo-British War
Around the 1890s, Africa was controlled by Liberia, an American puppet in all except name. Spain, the British Empire, Scandinavia and the English Commonwealth. Each nation advanced by its own means, dominating each tribal kingdom with the bible and the rifle and subjugating the lands they found. The new technologies and knowledge were used largely to modernize and ensure a status of technological equilibrium with its rivals. As if it were a race in order to avoid being left behind. However, we will talk about what would be called the First English-British War. Since the English Revolution, things had been tense between the Commonwealth and the Empire for a long time. The colonization of Africa only served to provide a battleground among this bad blood where the descendants of the British and Royalist nobility could face off against their rebellious Republican brethren. Ever since the borders were cleared, the greater Mozambique region had been a chaos of disputed borders and conflicts, between English and Boer colonists supported by London, British colonists supported by the government of Victoria (administrative British name for Calcutta). The situation would be compared to that suffered between England and Scotland before the Union. The high frequency of conflicts that caused the livelihood of the people who lived there to be devastated. Even the royal authority on both sides was to be considered when considering itself weak. The uncertainty of existence meant that communities or people related to one another would seek security through their own strength and cunning, and would improve their livelihoods at the expense of their potential enemies. This situation would promote a predatory way of life such as insufficient land to sustain themselves, cattle rustling easily crossed territory even property raids which would see the theft of easily valuable household items or valuables, along with the taking of hostages for ransom.
The attitudes of the English and British governments towards border communities alternated between leniency and even encouragement, as these ferocious communities served as the first line of defense against a cross-border invasion. In the midst of this situation, the Boer and English colonists revived an old word by mixing it with a Boer. This was Reivers Commandos: a mix between the old English word for "rob" and the Boer word Kommando which would later change to Commando. The Reivers Commandos raided impartially, as long as the people they raided had no powerful protectors or connection to their own kin. Their activities, though usually within a day's journey of the border, the numbers involved in a raid could range from a few dozen to organized campaigns involving up to 3,000 Reivers horsemen. This situation would promote a type of militarized architecture where the inhabitants of the border lived in fortified houses, for their security against assailants, it was two-story and immensely strong for its relatively small size, it had stone walls more than a meter thick . The ground floor was vaulted to avoid flammable materials and housed the most valuable livestock. The upper floor was the house that was accessed by an external staircase that was removed during the night, the windows were small and sometimes they were only loopholes for weapons. The capabilities of the Reivers Commandos would be such that British versions of them would soon emerge leading to the famous Battle of Jameson on December 29, 1895 where the British neutralized a force of five hundred English Reivers while marching in the middle of the night. The confrontation was incredibly unpleasant, especially as the British decided to shoot their fifty surviving and wounded prisoners in a ditch.
The consequences of the massacre shocked the border community as hundreds of men and young men were slaughtered like dogs. When normally, bodies weren't desecrated like that. The affair brought Anglo-British relations to a dangerous low point made worse by an altercation in a tavern involving sailors from HMS Rhodes and citizens of Port Elizabeth, HMS Rhodes was a protected cruiser acting on an anti-piracy mission. . After weeks at sea, the warship anchored in port and the ship's captain gave 110 sailors permission to disembark due to the long stay on tour. This was unwise considering the state of relations between the British Empire and the Commonwealth. Around 8:00 p.m. m. and under the influence of alcohol, the sailors met a group of relatives of those murdered in Jameson, starting a discussion that ended in a fight with blows, sticks and even broken bottles in which the British sailors took the worst part with two own deaths and 17 wounded. 60 policemen arrived on the scene and detained about 50 sailors and 10 Good Hope natives at a nearby jail. According to the local police report, the lawsuit began when a sailor from HMS Rhodes spat offensively in the face of a northern settler and two settlers came out in defense of the offended, in the revolt, one of them was the boatswain who was killed by a shooting; The incidents escalated and another Marine was killed with a bayonet. When the news reached London and Victoria respectively, both governments blamed each other: London accused the British Empire of not keeping its sailors under control and demanded payment in reparations, while the British Empire demanded reparations from London for the constant territorial violations and the fighting in the Zambezia region.
The London press led by Alfred Harmsworth, owner of the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, was quick to use the incident as ammunition for a hugely profitable newsgroup, which appealed to the general public. The situation ended up fomenting instability in the streets of London itself as groups of workers moved forward picking up angry men who were marching towards the Palace of Westminster itself. The protesters, numbering nearly 10,000 men and women, halted when they found themselves detained on Westminster Bridge by armed soldiers belonging to the 1st Guards Regiment. The sight of the soldiers with two Maxim machine guns rigged ready to fire calmed their spirits enough that without advancing they began to demand that Parliament declare war on the British Empire. Finally, at sunset a telegram was sent declaring war on the British Empire. The Republic of Good Hope would soon request military support from London by virtue of its Commonwealth ties while British East Africa saw the mobilization of several thousand well-trained soldiers led by General Horatio Kitchener. The Government of Cape Town may have been out of widespread fighting like in Europe or the Northern Hemisphere, but it was not peaceful and its troops were surprisingly effective in fighting low intensity or tribal enemy conflicts. Such was the demonstrated military talent that they were praised in much of the press as a country of good will, with a territorial army in order and with honorable conduct. International pragmatism would mean that at one point between 1880 and 1895 up to 500 military observers went to Good Hope not only to meet the army but also to see it in action.
When Kitchener's army crossed the Zambezi River, they found conventional strategies rejected by experienced Commando Reivers who opted for a hit-and-run campaign. The so-called Field Army Kitchener was made up of 15,000 soldiers, many were young men recruited from British Africa and led by officers raised in India, who were often accompanied by their Indian servants. Precisely, many Indians would end up forming support bodies such as carriers, cooks, even nurses. Kitchener had planned to lead a textbook offensive typical of European or Western Military Academies: An advance towards the main cities and eliminate the armies. These target cities were Salisbury (Harare), Bulawayo, Gaborone, Maputo, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. The British advance was fierce and in many cases the British troops ended up razing farms when they requisitioned oxen or horses that were used to transport plows or carts. Anyone who got in the way of the work would be executed as happened like the Tolkien Family who was deprived of his father: Arthur Reuel Tolkien who died from a shot to the head by an anonymous British officer. This left the Tokien family, like others, without income or stability and they were forced to flee. In the midst of that period, many refugees would end up entering Reivers Commandos who gave them safe passage for their revenge. The Commandos would inflict constant harassment on the British forces who attempted their own advance, but were met with difficult terrain and horrendous attrition. Kitchener ruling from Fort Kitchener near Chiveve. Although the Border Reivers originally did not expect to fight their fellow Protestant Christians due to having an overly optimistic sense of what war would entail, imagining that victory could be achieved so quickly and easily with just a few engagements.
For the British soldiers who hoped to pit the peasants and miners against the English. They ended up finding farmers who had spent most of their working lives in the saddle, both as farmers and hunters. They depended on the pot, the horse and the rifle; they were also skilled stalkers and marksmen. As hunters, they had learned to shoot from cover; from a prone position and make the first shot count, knowing that if they miss, the game would be over a long time ago or they could charge up and potentially kill them. The Commandos would present the British forces with a severe tactical challenge as they presented an innovative and mobile approach to warfare. This made them expert mounted infantry, capable of using every patch of cover, from which they could lay down destructive fire using Lee–Enfield rifles. Even the government provided various groups of Commandos, field guns all pulled by horses. The Commandos didn't take long to adapt and become first class artillerymen, being for Kitchener, a military nightmare. Like other British Imperial commanders, Kitchener and his staff had been trained in the lessons of the conquest of Indochina and Southeast Asia and were experts in battalion and regimental pieces, with columns maneuvering in jungles, deserts and mountainous regions. What the British generals failed to comprehend was the impact of destructive fire from trench positions and the mobility of cavalry raids. British troops went to war with what would turn out to be old-fashioned tactics, and in some cases old-fashioned weapons, against Good Hope's mobile forces with destructive fire from their modern Lee-Enfields, field guns, and their novel tactics. It would be in this environment that Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, would arrive in the summer of 1896. Roberts was affectionately known to his troops and the British public for his experience in Imperial Army service to the point of being called "Uncle Robert" for his forty years of military service.
Roberts did what Kitchener dared not do: Know his enemy. Roberts knew nothing of the border raids on the Zambezi River and was not prejudiced against the people of Good Hope. He viewed them as colonial territory similar to British Africa, but after questioning captured prisoners and families, Roberts discovered that the Commandos were a cohesive fighting unit made up of what could be called Guerrillas. Roberts then understood that with the free civilian population, it would be possible to find a weapon behind every blade of grass, stone, even dry bed. Kitchener thought that superior numbers, training, and weaponry would win the day against the Good Hope inhabitants, however, he failed to take into account that he was facing a population that had spent the last fifty years fanatically defending every piece of land taken. Despite the overwhelming numerical superiority, the dogged determination of each Commando was something that bled the British when they crossed the territory. Robert then when with the support of Kitchener, began on September 16, 1896, a campaign of "Reconcentration" where thousands of families were uprooted from their homes and separated from their lands and their cattle to be driven to the area near the Zambezi river where camps would be erected to house these people. What Roberts and Kitchener did not understand was that such a mass of people together without services or housing would serve as a breeding ground for epidemics, famine and death. These camps would soon be surrounded and limited by barbed wire and towers equipped with machine guns. The action of the military officers was not driven by a barbaric desire to exterminate the population, as it would seem. In fact, their reconcentration decrees stipulated the need for concentration areas to offer acceptable living conditions. But that purpose would be buried by the magnitude of an exodus that overwhelmed all response capacity of the military administration, which paid more attention to the military effort than to the logistics.
However, although the work of the Commandos was useful, the objective of expelling or eliminating the invading forces was energetic but minimal. The British troops sent alongside Roberts would be veterans of the Indochina wars: used to fighting fearlessly and hardened by the brutality of war against Asian rebellions. With the Reconcentration Order, the treatment of the civilian population changed drastically. The classic honor and chivalry that characterized the young and idealistic officers of the Imperial military academies, was replaced by coldness and a sense of duty to the orders received. Military atrocities turned brutal and even criminal, with farms and ranches being burned while animals were stolen, while women found were raped and swiftly executed: shot in the head or in the worst case left behind. half dead and their homes burning. By October 1896, aid would arrive at Good Hope under the command of Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell. Robert Baden-Powell would arrive in the South with various regiments of troops including the 13th Hussars. The difference between guerrilla and regular troops was quickly felt by the British who saw how they were expelled in a totally ruthless and unrestrained manner. The situation, however, took a turn when the first news of the Concentration Camps became public in London. The British Soldiers in many cases, left in trucks fleeing from the English cavalry or the Boer Commandos. In one case, the Boers infiltrated a camp disguised in British uniforms only to publicly lynch British soldiers who found themselves set upon by Afrikaneer-speaking bearded men in the same uniform.
It can be said that the arrival of the well-armed, trained, and experienced English brought about such a sudden change that it was paid for with a high price. Soon, Commandos advanced past the Zambezi River coming to apply dishonorable tactics, the vision of the concentration camps made them leave the Christian beliefs of piety. Many groups including officials in Pretoria felt that their cause was just, and blessed by God. The arrival of coffins with young Britons, many sons of aristocrats who had earned their stripes in Southeast Asia, was not very popular and the Imperial General Staff would end up choosing to replace the white British troops with Indian subjects. Soon the British army in Africa would be filled with so-called Sepoys: burly men, young men with thick, muscular shoulders and necks and arms, rugged features, curly hair, and brown skin. 20,000 Sepoys would be deployed in Africa and sent by train in haste; in many cases to the horror of the Hindus, on trains that had previously been carrying pigs. The value of the Sepoys would be put to the test in the battle of Quelimane where they would defend the city from the Baden-Powell offensive, at one point, a Sepoy who responded to the name of Gandhi, would assume command of the Sepoys, managing to expel Baden -Powell. The Battle of Quelimane would be the last battle because shortly after a white peace would be declared, to the displeasure of many Commando veterans who would later be paid with farms in better territories. On the other hand, the Sepoys stood out as brave, resistant and resistant combatants. capable of obeying orders in adverse conditions although British aristocratic racism would prevent them from rising to a higher rank than Sergeant.
Gandhi during Quelimane