__1834:__

__January:__

A ship operating under British colours was caught smuggling goods to Panama. The crew were placed under arrest and the ship taken in by Spanish authorities. The British were informed about what had happened, causing a mass outrage in Parliament and the populace in general. The idea of free trade was still ingrained as a policy in the British Government and many began to demand that the men should be released. The Whig Government however, failed to make any noise on the subject due to the fact the Earl Grey felt that there was a point in the fact that the crew had been breaking the law.

This was not taken well by many people, even including those in the Government itself. Earl Grey was forced into a fight for his Premiership; the fact he had earlier began to rethink his position on reforming the voting process only further served to undermine his popularity. With Grey’s refusal to even ask for the British crew to be returned, a vote of no confidence was held and Grey was forced out, leaving the moderate Lord Melbourne to become the new Prime Minister, much to the dismay of William IV who had been hoping for the Conservatives to take control of the situation. With support from the Party and the public, Melbourne began to look to introducing a Bill to finally be rid of the Rotten Boroughs and gain the advantage in the electoral votes.

__May:__

In his campaign to bring the Meiningen Pact further into the camp of France, Napoleon II began to publicly open up to the idea of allowing the German regions of the Empire gain greater autonomy from Paris, using the term ‘Imperial Council’ to bring together all of the nationalities of the French Empire in order to prevent an outbreak of violence. This Council would include representatives of the Dutch, Italian and German peoples from the Empire.

One noticeable lack of people who could have been in the Council was the Spanish people of the Basque region. Despite his Liberal leanings in the area of Nationalism, Napoleon II had developed a blind spot when it came to Spain. Possibly because of the fact that his father had met his most catastrophic defeat there, Napoleon was determined to turn the Basque region into a bastion of French culture in the Iberian Peninsula. To that extent, signs were put up in French, the French language was taught in schools and Spanish was strongly discouraged, greatly increasing dissent in the region.

Spain of course took little liking to this turn of events. The loss of the Basque territories were still of huge national embarrassment and the attempts of the Napoleonic Empire to place its own culture on the region was a further insult. Spain began to demand that France stop its actions and begin negotiations regarding returning the territories to Spain. The French Government simply pointed out that Spain had signed away the territories and they legally belonged to France. Belligerence between the two nations began to grow even more throughout the year and beyond.

__July:__

As the North American continent began to be fully mapped out and explored, the North-West region slowly began to fall under dispute between the British and the US. The Oregon Territory, as it came to be known was only one of a number of disputes the two nations had but it was slowly becoming the most divisive as the territory was soon found to be very rich in resources that would be vital to either side. Although the issue was a minor one in the early 1830’s, it grew throughout the period into one that would lead to constant clashing between the two powers.

__November:__

In New England, the Industrial Party gained a new amount of votes in the election with their best results but failed to gain any power. The Federalists had now been in control of the New England Republic for twenty years and the people were still enjoying their control by and large. Harold Garston had stood down by now and the fiery politician James Quail took on the role of President of the New England Republic. Quail saw New England’s history as one of struggle against the ambitions of the United States of America. Quail was also worried about the increasing tensions in the Shawnee Nation; the political instability had been heightening fears that if the Shawnee Nation fell then New England would have to rely on the mercy of the British to help defend themselves.

Quail also began to look into the use of trains to aid in military operations. The rise in trains and their transport potential had begun to be seen as a huge boon for any mobilisation effort. The train tracks were brought under a national consensus with the tracks being made a compulsory width to increase the efficiency of the tracks and any mobilisation that would take place.

__December:__

On December 26th, the tensions between the pro-reform and anti-reform factions in the Shawnee Nation finally came to a head when the anti-reform factions called upon Tecumseh to expel those who wanted reform from the Shawnee Parliament on the basis that they were threatening the Shawnee’s way of life. Those who supported reform were outraged by this and demanded that Tecumseh expel the anti-reform factions for trying to launch a coup. Tecumseh was paralysed by indecision, if he followed any of these suggestions, he would have started a Civil War. But doing nothing would have simply spread the idea that he was weak and the factions would have started to act by themselves.

Faced with no other option, Tecumseh ordered a suspension of Parliament for one month until he made his decision. The move was greeted with shock by many as although they Tribes had clashes, they had grown to look up to Tecumseh as the Chief who’d be able to steer them through any crisis. The month that followed was tense as many Tribes began to arm themselves for Civil War to decide what would happen. Tecumseh went into seclusion as he tried to decide the fate of the nation he had created.