Alright, so I've always wanted to see what you think would have happened if President José Manuel Balmaceda won the Chilean Civil War of 1891.
For those of you unfamilar with Chilean history, President Balmaceda started a civil war against the Congress. The Congress side had its base in Iquique, cutting the presidential side of its main source of income. The Presidential side had its base in Santiago, the capital of the country. The Navy supported the Congress, the Army supported Balmaceda. This war happened between January and September of 1891, ending with Balmaceda's suicide on the Embassy of Argentina, leaving power on General Manuel Baquedano, after completing his term.
Balmaceda used this civil war to name his replacement, Claudio Vicuña, who would have ruled from 1891-1896, had Balmaceda won. Without the Congress, Balmaceda turned into a bloody dictator, with the infamous Lo Cañas massacre as the final nail in the coffin for his government.
The Navy supported the Congress, but a few vessels remained loyal to Balmaceda. The Almirante Lynch, the Imperial(a weaponized transport) and the Almirante Condell, that was sailing through the Atlantic when the war started. But on Europe, on British shipyards, Balmaceda had vessels that could have evened the odds. The battleship Capitán Prat and the protected cruisers Presidente Pinto and Presidente Errázuriz. These were being built and they didn't arrive in time for the war, with delays caused by the rebels.
The Navy, on the other hand, had the twin ironclads, Almirante Cochrane and Almirante Blanco Encalada, the monitor and war prize of the War of the Pacific, Huáscar, the gunboat Magallanes, the corvette O'Higgins and the protected cruiser Esmeralda.
Personally, this event was what stopped progress in Chile for 34 years. A bloody civil war that put men who fought side by side before against each other. As a result, the President was a powerless puppet while Congress controlled everything. Ok, not powerless, but severely weakened.
(Ironically, they kept the Portalian Constitution of 1833. Constitution based on the ideas of a man who favored, above all things, a strong Executive.)
If Balmaceda manages to defeat the Congress forces, how does this affect things?
For example, John Thomas North, is royally screwed, since Balmaceda would take everything he had, or the saltpeter money would be put to use for education and transport.
Any ideas on how this civil war ending differently would affect Chile, South America and the world?