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The Sundered West - Alternative History RP in the Western Hemisphere [Closed]

Lore
Here
Welcome to The Sundered West nation-building RP

The United States had been dissolved following a failed constitutional convention in 1787, leaving the states to build their own path as independent republics. 60 years later, the west has been sundered by wars and empires, led by despots and fortune seekers carving out land from one another for themselves.

A more extensive lore of the current world, how it got to this point and explanatory maps can be found here: Nation Building - The Sundered West Lore

Turns will be 1 year long, starting in January 1st, 1850. Turns should be no longer than 10 command lines, split between:

Diplomacy: Interactions with all foreign countries, whether NPC or player
Domestic: Everything involving your internal affairs, from the economy to social laws
Military: Anything involving the military whether in times of peace or war
Espionage: Skulduggery, spying and stealing of state secrets. Anything you don’t want other players to know goes here - but watch out for enemy spies as well.


Current Player List:
Native Hunter, Republic of New York
Joshuadim, Commonwealth of Virginia
Yung Lad, Republic of Alta
Ruski, the Georgian Republic
Pez, Kingdom of Louisiana
Martianant, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
Sobotnik, Cherokia
Amfleet, Los Cosiatos
Heyitsjiwon, Republic of Quebec​


Starting Map of the Western Hemisphere, January 1st 1850

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Ridge's speech to the representatives of the tribes: 1849

It is sometimes asked whether it is not possible to slow down the tempo somewhat, to put a check on those reforms we have made to our nation. No, brothers it is not possible! On the contrary, we must increase it as much as is within our powers and possibilities. This is dictated to us by our obligations to protect our people. Our land. Our nation.

To slacken the tempo would mean falling behind. And those who fall behind get beaten. But we do not want to be beaten. No, we refuse to be beaten! One feature of the history of the Indian peoples was the continual beatings suffered because of their backwardness. They were beaten by the British. They was beaten by the Spanish. They was beaten by the French. They were beaten by the nations of Europe and by their children. All beat her because of Indian backwardness, military backwardness, cultural backwardness, political backwardness, industrial backwardness, agricultural backwardness. They beat them because to do so was profitable and could be done with impunity. Do you remember the words of the poet Tayanita? "You are poor and abundant, mighty and impotent, Mother Cherokia." Those who beat Indians were no stranger to that. They beat them, saying: "Your land is abundant; so one can enrich oneself at your expense. They beat them, saying: "You are poor and impotent" so you can be beaten and plundered with impunity. Such is their law, to beat the weak and impotent. It is the jungle law which justifies slavery. You are backward, you are weak-therefore you are wrong; hence, you can be beaten and enslaved just like those negroes we took from Africa. You are mighty-therefore you are right; hence, we must be wary of you. That is why we must no longer lag behind.

In the past we did not have our nation, nor could we have one. But now that we have seized guns, power is in our hands, in the hands of the people, we have Mother Cherokia, and we will defend her independence. Do you want Mother Cherokia to be beaten and to lose its independence? If you do not want this you must put an end to its backwardness in the shortest possible time and develop a genuine Cherokee tempo in building up system of economy. One different to what came before. There is no other way. That is why Dragging Canoe said when he established Cutonuga: "Either we perish, or overtake and outstrip."

We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed.
 
Chapter I: "This Land Is My Land..."

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World Events Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty:

-The St. Patrick Riots: Poor Irish Catholic immigrants in the English colony of Newfoundland riot for three days over working conditions and treatment by the minority English protestant colonial government.
-Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is published.
-Newspapers in many Anglo-American nations, from Savannah to New York City, circulate an article condemning the perversion and lawlessness of the Ozark Federation.
-Pope Pius IX returns to Rome from exile.
-English convicts begin being transported to Western Australia.
-Hundreds of Irish Catholic immigrants arrive throughout the Commonwealth of New England, threatening Protestant denominations as the majority faith of the nation.
-As a concession to liberals in the empire, the Eusébio de Queirós Law is passed by the Brazilian crown, outlawing international slave trading in the empire.
-A rebellion against the Qing emperor in China erupts.
-Tensions between the Republic of Texas and the Republic of the Rio Grande grow over border disputes as both accuse the other of antagonizing the Commanche to raid one another.
-In November, the Austrian Empire takes leadership of the German Confederation from Prussia.
-The United Kingdom begins bringing East Indians to its Caribbean colonies as laborers.
-Former French monarch Louis Philippe I dies in exile in the United Kingdom.

Current Player Involved Conflicts:
Venezuelan Secession War: Los Cosiatos vs. Gran Colombia
Fifth Seminole War: The Georgian Republic vs. State of Seminole Chiefdoms

Other Conflicts in the Western Hemisphere:
N/A

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Republic of Alta - Milke
President: Michael Quixano
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Sacramento

-”Construction” is the spirit sweeping the Republic of Alta throughout 1850. Not of buildings, but of a country and President Quixano announces a formal constitution, based on the constitution of the Second French Republic, has been agreed upon by all the politicians in the land as a foundation for the nation. Along with creating the organs of a national government, an additional “12 Principles of Rights” is signed off, guaranteeing freedoms of speech and fair trial, as well as the outlawing of slavery and the right to vote for men of any ethnicity or color, marking Alta as one of the most free nations in the Americas.
-With a republic formed, the government quickly moves to make as many international friends as it can to thwart the Empire of Mexico potentially reconquering their lost province without notice from the world. A delegation is sent to the Republic of Texas which is welcomed with open arms due to a mutual foe.
-While talks of potentially exchanging construction of embassies go on through the spring, President Houston grants the Republic of Alta a supply of weapons. While many of the muskets are good, Georgian quality, delegates from Alta manage to secure shipments of a few modernized breech-loading rifles as well. As the hot summer approaches, a large wagon train of rifles, cannon, and gunpowder make their way into Sacramento.
-A delegation is also sent to Laredo, Republic of the Rio Grande to find friendship with the republican Mexicans there. While the people of the city welcome the Altans warmly and the government sympathizes with Alta’s independence, fears of reprisals from the Empire of Mexico handicap the Rio Grande from giving any practical assistance for now.
-As fall approaches, envoys are sent out to Moscow, London, and Paris to procure an international recognition and aid. To the disappointment of many, each government rejects an official recognition of what they currently consider a province of imperial Mexico. Despite this, the delegation to Paris manages to find some private financiers to help the Republic of Alta.
-Understanding that the new republic was still in a fragile state at the end of the year, President Quixano orders the current militias to take defensive positions throughout the southern border with the aim of bogging down and creating hell for any invading army approaching from the south while the Republic of Alta continues to build a formal and official army.


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Cherokia - Sobotnik
First Beloved Man: Ridge
Capital: Cutonuga
Largest City: Cutonuga

-The assembly of the Cherokee meet under the leadership of Chief Ridge at the beginning of the year in Cutonuga to discuss moving into the industrialization of the country as the Anglo-American and Franco-American states around it have. Though there is small dissent from the Traditionalists in the government, all recognize the survival of Cherokia thus far have been through successfully assimilation European technology and ideologies into the Amerindian nation. After a debate, the town of Unegvadisi where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers merge, is granted funds to build a steel mill as well as a locomotive construction yard. Funding and aid for the projects are fueled by relaxing tariffs on the Mississippi River shared with the Kingdom of Louisiana as well as raw materials from the Pennsylvanian city of Pittsburgh.
-To help facilitate communications from different parts of the country, the National Cherokee Telegraph Office is formed. By the end of the year, lines are run from the Ohio River all the way south to the Gulf of Mexico.
-An envoy is sent to London in the late spring to open up trade with the United Kingdom with the intention of expanding the industrial birth of Cherokia. Within a week, agreements are signed with the English selling a handful of steamships to the Cherokee in exchange for them curbing the institute of slavery, an institute already smaller than neighboring nations on the continent.
-To make space for the arrival of the steamships later in the year, Cherokia’s sole port of Maubila is ordered to expand as well as construct drydocks to service the ships. The first orders of Unegvadisi steel is made by the ports of Maubila, increasing the use of Cherokia’s only railway through the country dramatically.
-While the Modernists in government managed to make great leaps in pushing industry in Cherokia, agreements are made with the Traditionalists on teaching the history of the Cherokee people. Education is made mandatory for children 5 to 12, with instruction on the epic poem “Cherokia” emphasized every year of schooling. The poem, a long saga of the creation and history of the Cherokee nation from the beginning of time to present day, is meant to teach children where their ancestors are from and to insure they know the difference between Cherokee and Anglo-American.
-In mid summer, a census is held throughout the country and mandated to repeat every 5 years. With hard work and dedication, those tasked with the accounting produce a report for the government revealing a general population of 350,000 throughout the land.
-After reading the census report, the government of the Cherokee pass a law granting men who own or rent property of a value of $10 or greater the right to vote in the coming years, with both Modernists and Traditionalists hoping to garner more support for their ideals.
-Though industrialization is the main focus of Cutonuga throughout the year, a number of ordinances and funds are moved around for expanding the defense of the country. Gun battery fortifications are constructed at Unegvadisi, Cutonuga, and Maubila to defend the most vital points in the nation.
-Great praise is made for Ridge after revealing a Non-Aggression Pact is signed with the Georgian Republic, securing most of Cherokia’s eastern border. The deal includes exporting Cherokee goods and materials to Georgia, creating what is hoped to be a large influx of capital into the land.
-By the end of the year, Cherokia breaks from the repeating history of taking technologies from other nations and takes the initiative by becoming the first American nation to phase out muskets in favor of breech-loading rifles, hoping to give their armies an edge in any conflict.


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The Georgian Republic - Ruski
President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Capital: Savannah
Largest City: Atlanta

-President Stephens starts the new year off with announcing a historic procurement of a non-aggression pact with Cherokia, ending the decades long worry of conflict for those living along the border. Along with the peace comes a trade deal allowing Georgian industrialists to purchase raw materials from Cherokia.
-The following March, newspapers announce a reduction of tariffs between Georgia and the Carolina Confederacy. Though not much is imported from the north, Georgian rifle manufactures find new markets for avid Carolina huntsmen as well as slave bounty hunters.
-Despite peace being made on most of the Georgian frontier, the government quietly ramps up recruitment for the army throughout the late winter and spring, while fresh orders by the quartermaster corps is made to cannon manufactures. What few journalists take notice of the armament of the nation write it off as a “public injection of funds into a growing industry”.
-In early May, the purpose of the rising military expenditures is unmasked with a declaration of war on the State of Seminole Chiefdoms in the south. With the goal of eliminating once and for all Amerindian raids on Georgia’s southern border, the army is ordered to invade across the entire peninsula. The initial invasion catches majority of the Seminoles off guard, but after decades of conflict with the Georgians, manage to quickly organize a resistance.
-The Georgian Army manages to march easily into the first few hundred villages along the border, capturing many Seminole warriors in the process. By the end of May, the army encounters its first major battle with a united Seminole army near the Tampa Bay. After years of experienced fighting, the Georgian army decisively defeat the Amerindians, with an estimate of some 600 Seminole warriors killed or wounded. This allows the Georgians to sweep the rest of the peninsula until the final Battle of Lake Okeechobee which, despite succumbing to the heaviest losses so far in the war, Georgia comes out as a clear victor. Throughout the end of the year, Georgian forces secure the land all the way to the Florida Keys, however pockets of Seminole warriors remain throughout the far south giving constant ambushes against the Georgians into the end of the year while many others are suspected to have fled to British Bahamas.
-With the south finally free of Seminole incursions, the government decides it is safe to invest more into the southern frontier. The ports of Jacksonville on the Atlantic coast are given large funds to expand and dredge while railroad tracks are laid from the port all the way to Atlanta, hoping to connect Georgian industry with international exports.
-Government sponsored pamphlets are circulated throughout Europe in the fall advertising Georgia’s successful securing of its borders and growing industry as a place of safe and well-paying jobs, though mention of Georgia’s current slave status remains noticeably absent. Though many in Europe have other targets for immigration in the Americas, one group of people - the Irish Catholics - find Georgia as good a nation as any to flee from the famine gripping their homeland.


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Los Cosiatos - Amfleet
Rebel Leader: General José Antonio Páez
Home City: Valencia

-Under the leadership of General Paez, the Cosiatos begin circulating newspapers condemning the Bogota government as weak, corrupt, and uncaring to the people in the east of Gran Colombia. While the articles stop short of being offensively critical of The Liberator, President Simon Bolivar, the notion that his age and frailty have begun to hinder his ability to govern quickly finds agreement throughout the city of Valencia and the surrounding countryside. Many top officials of Bolivar's government are blamed for the loss of Ecuador in the Colombian-Peru War, catching the attention of many of the peasants who had fought the conflict.
-Hoping to capitalize on Bolivar’s weak foreign diplomacy, General Paez sends out a number of envoys to the Anglo-American nations in North America seeking aid in return for promise of open trade in the future. Though few governments even grant the envoys an audience, President Anderson of the Commonwealth of New England grants a shipment of muskets and pistols from Boston to the rebels, sympathetic to their democratic cause.
-During the time the Cosiatos envoys are away, the general practices governorship at home, courting the favor of surrounding plantation owners. Some throw their support behind him without hesitation, mostly due to some slight suffered from a Bogota official at some time in the past, while others play it safe with promises of support should he managed to actually secede Venezuela from Gran Colombia, but the majority brush him off as a dreamer or a lunatic.
-By late spring, General Paez and his Cosiatos launch an uprising in their home city of Valencia. The revolt captures the city and places it in the general’s hands so quickly that most are caught off guard. The following week, a similar rebellion is sprung in the city of Caracas. While a few gunshots are heard, no one is killed and the pro-Bolivar officials are thrown out of the city following a chant of “Go back to Colombia”. Loyal supporters of the general afterward set up patrols to take on the duty of city police and act as a militia should the cause need them to be.
-As news spreads of the seizure of Valencia and Caracus, the people of Maturín rise in rebellion to the Gran Colombian police and officials, handing General Paez a sizable region in the east of the country.
-With a large piece of Gran Colombia under Cosiatos control and the arms to keep it, a delegation is sent to Bogota to petition an end to hostilities and a peaceful split of the country. Silence returns for several weeks before newspapers from the west reveal that the delegation was imprisoned for treason and the Colombian army was mobilizing to crush “an uprising of banditry in the east”.
-As a result of Bogota’s inability to peacefully resolve the split, General Paez declares the independence of the United Venezuelan States and orders a number of roadblocks on all major highways to the west. Throughout the fall, some encounter police patrols of Gran Colombia and are either turned back or peacefully disarmed, but a number of bloody skirmishes break out when army units approach. Some roadblocks are broken while others proudly hold their ground, revealing how weak President Bolivar has let the once proud Colombian army become.
-While the rebellion is clearly a going concern by the end of the year, a decisive battle has yet to be waged due to the government in Bogota spending time both shoring up political support for the war and filling the ranks of the infantry. Though much of the regions around Valencia and Caracas are in full support of General Paez and Los Cosiatos, some regions in the west, notably the city of Puerto la Cruz, stand staunchly with President Bolivar and threaten the rebellion’s eastern flank should Colombia manage to send reinforcements there.


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Kingdom of Louisiana - Pez
Monarch: Napoleon III
Capital: New Orleans
Largest City: New Orleans

-Knowing that the Mississippi River has flooded New Orleans with wealth since the city was founded, the Kingdom decides to reinvest that wealth over the decades back up the river. Large barges and riverboats are commissioned and sold hoping aid in exporting goods in both north and south. By the early summer, barges delivering textiles and goods from the Caribbean up the Mississippi are found as far as Pittsburgh and throughout the Ohio.
-Along with these goods come small doses of immigration, mostly into the Ozark Federation as it is the first stop for many going up or down river. Many of the Louisianan arrivals in St. Louis are businessmen but many bring their families along to grow roots with their finances. By the fall, a number of missionary Catholic priests and friars follow to tend to the immigrating flock.
-The expansion of commerce up the river instead of down it results in a cluster of more ships in New Orleans trying to import goods rather than export. City and royal officials put state funds into expanding the ports to resolve the congestion. Much like New York’s Ellis Island, the construction of "Port de Règlement" is designed for registering immigrants as well as receiving goods.
-As the kingdom reaches northward, it sends its other arm to reach southward, opening up diplomatic ties with other nations around the Caribbean. Trade ties are made with the United States of Central America and the Confederation of the Equator, while relations with the Empire of Haiti greatly improve with a lavish embassy constructed in Port-au-Prince.
-In the late summer, a delegation is sent to London to open up easier trade relations with the United Kingdom. Many in parliament wish to reject trade with the American kingdom due to its use of slaves, but most understand the economic position in which New Orleans sits upon and receive the Frenchmen well enough to pass some deals.
-Hoping to attract more commerce and immigration, posters are spread on the walls of some European cities as well as other Francophone nations in the Americas proclaiming the Kingdom of Louisiana as the “Napoleon’s Great Legacy” and its capital as, “The Venice of the West”.
-By the end of the year, goods from the tropics begin to ship to New Orleans en mass as well as a spike in immigration, though registration officials are surprised that the majority of those entering the kingdom are poor Irish immigrants more so than anywhere else they had advertised.
-To help keep track of the growing population, a Royal Census Department is formed, tasked with keeping track of the entry of immigrants as well as the overall population every decade. With pressure from the military, an annual census report is pushed onto the department though many within complain about the logistics and ability to be accurate on an annual basis. With hard work, the RCD manages to find a rough estimate of around 800,000 throughout the kingdom by the end of the year.


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Republic of New York - Native Hunter
President: Stephan Van Rensselaer IV
Capital: Albany
Largest City: New York City

-The large amount of Irish Catholic immigrants fleeing the famine in their homeland to the northeast lands of North America shapes most of the Republic of New York’s domestic policies throughout 1850. While other nations are hesitant to receive so many foreigners, President Rensselaer sees them as an energy in which his nation can harness. In January, Ellis Island off the coast of New York City is acquired by the national government to be used as a processing station for all European newcomers. A registration is designed to keep track of all immigrating to the country and to help identify themselves with government issued papers. By the end of March, the first ship from Dublin ports at the island.
-As the population has grown over the recent years, the National Assembly in Albany passes the Immigrant Land Grant Ordinance, making sweeping proactive changes to accommodate those entering the country. The priority of the ILGO creates funds for expansive construction of apartment buildings throughout New York City, which not only creates housing for newcomers but easy access to jobs “right off the boat”. Keeping in mind that New York is a large nation, the ILGO focuses heavily on distributing immigrants around the country, both to prevent them from becoming a majority in any one locale and also to expand the population of the nation’s frontiers. Land in the hinterlands are sold on the cheap to families immigrating in, and by the end of the year “Little Dublins” are created around Buffalo, Syracuse, and Burlington.
-In June, nationalists in the government make complaints of the President Rensselaer’s immigration policies. As a compromise, an army recruitment plan is made in which fast-tracked citizenship is given to immigrants who enlist for a minimum of 4 years in the army or navy. To ensure those who sign up will use their future citizenship loyally, recruits are drilled with patriotism of New York. Few immigrants complain about the drilling, as loyalty to a nation that isn’t in the middle of a deadly famine is not hard to give.
-As part of the deal to the nationalists to allow immigrants in the army, funding for the expansion of the military academy at West Point is given so that more sons of born-and-bred New York families, particularly those of large land-owning families, are given leadership of the military forces.
-Though much of the president’s time is spent in either Albany, New York City, or his manor, in July he becomes moved by viewing a landscape painting by Thomas Cole of the beauty of central New York. With this in mind, he works with the National Assembly, particularly across the aisle with the more liberal members, to pass the National Monuments Act of 1850 in which lumber companies and deforestation for agriculture is banned in parts of the Catskills, Adirondacks, and Green Mountains in hopes of preserving “the eternal beauty of the land for posterity”. As part of a personal rider from the president, the Act also creates public funding for the Hudson River School art movement in which painters aiming to capture the beauty of the land are commissioned by the government.
-While much of the national assembly’s time is focused on immigration and land reform, in late August, with the president’s approval, the purchase of several fortifications along the Gold Coast in Africa is made from Denmark. While costing a fortune for New York, it’s believed to be worth the investment as it gives the American nation a financial and economic foothold across the ocean that no other American country has.
-Before adjourning for the beginning of winter, the government passes the National Waterways Act, a large funding bill for the expansion of ports in New York and Jersey City, as well as numerous river towns along the Hudson River into the heart of the nation. The goal of the bill is to facilitate more ship construction as well as ease of commerce up and down the nation’s most vital river.


Pennsylvania Flag.png
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Gnomical
President: Francis R. Shunk
Capital: Philadelphia
Largest City: Philadelphia

-As the new year of 1850 begins, the government of President Shunk builds a policy of manifest destiny westward. Large funds are given to railroad companies to carve a path from Philadelphia halfway through the nation to the central Pennsylvanian city of Pittsburgh. Throughout the year, much rail is placed in the east, though construction slows heavily once approaching the Appalachian mountains where cartographers must decide which mountain to go around or which to tunnel under.
-Hoping to entice more immigration to the western frontier as well as other remote regions of the country, the Frontier Land Grant Tax Act is passed by the national assembly. The program offers government owned land on the frontiers to private citizens at very cheap rates with a gradual tax incline over the years. The goal is to tax pioneers accordingly to their development of the land they own, which becomes lucrative to many Pennsylvanians living in the east. Companies are given special tax incentives as well and Pittsburgh throughout the year sees almost a ten percent increase in population.
-Knowing that a growing population unchecked could lead to chaos, the President’s cabinet organizes a national policing program in which volunteer citizens in towns around the border and frontier are to be called upon to aid law enforcement in the event of riots, crime waves, or illegal bounty hunting. By the end of the year, the policy sees mixed success as many towns throughout the mountains see a reduction in crime, but most along the southern border keep reports of slave bounty hunters still operating. The Attorney General’s department suspects by the end of the year that the continue operation is more due to bribes than citizen apathy.
-To gain a better foothold on curbing bounty hunters coming into the Commonwealth, the Philadelphia government expands its diplomatic mission to the Republic of Maryland to the south. By strengthening relations with its southern neighbor, it is hoped that any illegal activities coming from the Cotton Kings of the south can be stopped there before reaching Pennsylvanian soil. Knowing that they sit between two regional powers, President Philip Francis Thomas of Maryland accepts the diplomats so long as he is not pressured to do anything proactive against Virginia.
-Understanding that Maryland, while friendly, must always take the middle ground between Virginian and Pennsylvanian foreign policies, the army is ordered to construct additional fortifications along the southern border, especially in the east to protect any southern invasion from capturing the capital of Philadelphia. By year’s end, the Susquehanna River becomes heavily fortified as the “first and last line of defense”.
-The Republic of Canada on the other side of Lake Erie, is also a target of President Shunk’s diplomatic goals. A delegation is sent to Toronto in June where plans to exchange embassies are announced. A trade deal is made out by the end of the month in which Pennsylvanian agricultural goods are exchanged for sturdy Canadian lumber as well as shared access to fishing rights on the Great Lakes.
-Though President Shunk’s priorities have been to grow relations with immediate neighbors, an envoy of Cherokee to Philadelphia is welcomed warmly by his government. After a few weeks of negotiation, a trade deal is reached in which Pennsylvania machinery is exported from Pittsburgh down the Ohio River in exchange for raw materials from Cherokia sent back. Along with immigration westward and the preamble to an industrial boom, Pittsburgh quickly is pegged as the fastest growing and most important city in the nation by many newspapers, surpassing the capital for the first time in the country’s history.
-While the land between Virginia and Philadelphia is being fortified, the National Assembly manages to pass the Naval Renewal Act in September. The law enables the Pennsylvanian navy to add additional ships, from corvettes to a few more battleships to the navy. By years end, construction in Philadelphian dry docks as well as in Little Egg Harbor on the Atlantic coast is begun.


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Commonwealth of Virginia - Joshuadium
President: Abraham Lincoln
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Norfolk

-President Lincoln begins the year signing an order banning the importation and international trade of slaves with the Commonwealth. There is a vocal disapproval by the conservatives in the government, but because the ban has no impact on slaves already owned in the nation, little action is actually taken against Virginia’s first non-slave-owning president.
-Working with the liberal minority in the House of Burgundy, Lincoln manages to organize a complex tax plan in the early spring. Using existing property tax laws, a levy is pushed on the ownership of slaves. Using his political talent, the President manages to get the tax passed with the majority conservative government by splitting his opposition on the matter by reducing many taxes on industry and business ventures. While all the conservatives in government support the institute of slavery, only a minority are actual owners, and so the business tax decrease manages to appeal to many non-owning conservatives.
-Much of the funding earmarked from the rise in slave-taxation is put toward a newly created public school system for all the white children of Virginia. Initial construction of elementary schools are built in the major cities of the country so the requirement of children to attend up to the age of 14 can be fulfilled.
-The Virginian government orders an overhaul of the military forces. Having not seen combat or conflict in some years, it is feared that should a war come the army and navy may be ill-equipped. To revitalize Virginia’s great army, units are organized to have monthly drills and ten-mile marches to keep the men in fit and disciplined order.
-When news of Cherokia’s purchase of English steamships reaches Richmond, a flurry of funds are collected to rebuild the Virginian Navy. Ships in service are all scheduled for inspection in the drydocks of Norfolk to mend even the smallest repairs needed while the older ships are scuttled or sold to private owners.


Next Turns Due Saturday, February 2nd 2019
 

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CHAPTER II: “The American Scholar”


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Turn Music - “Ring, Ring, de Banjo” by Stephen Foster of Pennsylvania





World Events, Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty One:

-Self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ, Hong Xiuquan, takes leadership of the Taiping Rebellion in China against the Qing Dynasty.
-Slavery is abolished in Peru, Ecuador, and Argentinian Confederation in South America.
-Young Irish men in the British colony of Newfoundland form the Éire Naofa Movement with political goals of securing the rights of the Irish and Catholics in the colony.
-Bush fires sweep across the state of Victoria in Australia, devastating much of the land.
-A Carolinian bounty hunter is lynched in Connecticut by an abolitionist mob as he attempted to abduct a young negro, causing a diplomatic incident between Boston and Raleigh.
-Mexican pioneers build a settlement along the Rio Culebra naming it San Luis de la Culebra.
-Ramón Castilla loses the Peruvian presidency to José Rufino Echenique in April after 6 years in power.
-The Great Flood of 1851: After days of intense rainfall, the Mormon Republic of Zion is devastated by flooding, with some settlements nearly completely washed away.
-The sport of “baseball” grows in popularity Commonwealth of New England. Major games are also played in the Republic of New York with varying rules, though the popularity of state lacrosse begins to eclipse it.
-Chile experiences a year long revolution by liberal forces attempting to oust conservative president Manuel Montt. Despite the conflict lasting throughout 1851, Montt manages to crush the rebellion before the year’s end.
-German mathematician Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi dies February 18th.
-Ex-slave Frederick Douglass and abolitionist Gerrit Smith merge abolitionist newspapers North Star and Liberty Party Paper into Frederick Douglass’ Paper.
-A large Commanche raid of 50 or 70 men burn settlements and homesteads along the Texas border, pressuring President Houston to declare war on the violent natives in October.
-Sparked by fears of Louisianan interests in the Ozark Federation, vocal abolitionist John Brown travels to the country from his home nation of New England.
-Isaac Singer patents his sewing machine in the Republic of New York and founds the Singer Sewing Machine Company.
-Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones create The New York Daily-Times newspaper, while the international news service Rueters is founded.
-Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is published.

Current Player Involved Conflicts:
Venezuelan Secession War: United Venezuelan States + Republic of Ecuador vs. Gran Colombia (Since June, 1850)
Illinois Confederacy Civil War: Illinois Confederacy vs. Cahokia People + Cherokia

Other Conflicts in the Western Hemisphere:
West Texas Conflict: Comancheria vs. Republic of Texas
Ecuador-Peruvian War: Republic of Ecuador vs. Republic of Peru


Alta Flag.png
Republic of Alta - Milke
President: Michael Quixano
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Sacramento


-As winter draws to an end and the gold fields begin to thaw, President Quixano orders an expedition north to find friendship with the settlements of Russian trappers. Camp Vesperia is established along Puget Sound as it is strategically defensible from the ocean as well as halfway between Alta’s current borders and the Russians. To insure no conflict with local natives, a treaty is signed with Chief Seattle, leader of the Duwamish Peoples which receive some muskets from the Altans in return for food and peace.

-With Camp Vesperia fully defended and furnished, trade with Russian fur trappers slowly begins throughout the spring, many of which start to use the camp as a stop to rest before going to Alta proper to sell their pelts.

-Using the investments by French financiers and the large stockpile of gold accumulating in the country, the government chooses to use it as a means of securing the financial future of the nation. Plans for a large port with fortifications are made for the northern shores of San Francisco Bay, just across the water from the small Mexican settlement of San Francisco. The settlement is named Fort Rocinante, after the fort that is constructed first with Alta’s best cannon to defend it. Throughout the late spring and the entire summer, construction is done on the fort, the ports, and a future naval dockyard. To help increase both trade into the interior of Alta and speed communication from the ocean to the government, a ferry service is made to go from Fort Rocinante up the Sacramento River to the capitol.

-In July, the true test of the Republic’s ability to govern itself is made when President Quixano nationalizes the gold mines throughout the nation in order to safeguard the precious resource. A riot of mine owners and prospectors erupts in Sacramento, but is prevented from becoming too violent by the Altan militia, proving them to be loyal to the nation than their wallets. As the riots and protests die down, a plan to allow miners to return to their jobs without hindrance is made so long as they pledge a simple allegiance to the the Republic of Alta, which all do without hesitation.

-As the government solidifies its governance over its borders, a delegation lead by General Andrés Pico is sent to Paris to once more petition the French to recognize the Republic of Alta as an independent state from the Empire of Mexico. Already intervening on behalf of another secessionist movement in South America and eager to keep relations with Mexico due to its silver trade and France’s hold over Mexican bonds, they are formally turned down but the delegation is invited to remain in Paris for the foreseeable future as “unofficial unrecognized representatives” until politics in the western hemisphere change.

-As the mines begin to produce revenue for the government, President Quixano works with bankers and the government to reinvest it into diversifying the economy, stating, “Gold is precious but not edible.” Large tracts of lands are developed by the government and then sold to homesteaders with a number of tools and infrastructure of farming already there, allowing for immediate exploitation of the soil.

-By the end of the year, the first crops harvested before the snow falls is in such excess that farmers begin to sell some to San Francisco markets, despite the city being “on the other side of the border” with imperial Mexico.



Cherokee Flag.png
Cherokia - Sobotnik
First Beloved Man: Major Ridge
Capital: Cutonuga
Largest City: Cutonuga


-The beginning of 1851 is marked by fear for their fellow Amerindians following the crushing defeat of the Seminole peoples in south Florida the past year. An urgent envoy is sent by the government to Savannah to meet with Georgian officials about allowing refugees into Cherokia. With the thought of ridding natives from the newly acquired lands as a dream come true, President Stephens allows as many Seminoles that desire to leave to flee to Cherokia however only under the rule that they swear to never take up arms against Georgia again and that they be evacuated by sea, rather than allowing them into the interior of Georgia to reach Cherokee territory. Throughout the late winter, the Cherokia steamships are put to heavy use making continual rounds between the Bay of Tampa and Maubila.

-As the Seminole evacuation wraps up, Chief Ridge makes a trip to the Shawnee Confederation to create an Amerindian alliance to prevent another native fall to Anglo-American nations. Though the Shawnee have prided themselves on preserving their people from invasion on their own for many years, after a compassionate speech to the Council of Chiefs on the changing times, the Shawnee Confederacy votes for an alliance.

-After the trip to the Shawnee, Ridge and his delegation travels to the Illinois Confederacy to work out a similar deal. The Council of Twelve meets with Ridge, but strong in pride and disgust with the Cherokee willingness to convert his people to “the ugly world of the whites”, they reject his treaty for an alliance. Before Ridge leaves, however, chiefs from the Cahokia Peoples who live along the Ohio River and so are in greatest threat to Anglo-American invasion promise to break their tribe from the Confederation to become a protectorate of the Cherokee. When word breaks out of the “Cahokia betrayal”, the other tribes lead by the Peoria and Kaskaskia Peoples attack the Cahokia lands.

-Throughout most of the spring and early summer, the Illinois Confederacy manage to conquer and occupy the Cahokia lands, driving many across the Ohio River to the safety of fortified Cherokee towns. A plea is sent by Cutonuga to the Shawnee to enact their new alliance, but the envoy returns empty handed, dictating that the “Shawnee will fight with the Cherokee only against the whites, not our own” and remain neutral in the conflict for the rest of the year.

-The Illinois, unable to cross the Ohio due to the artillery at Unegvadisi, remain on the northern banks throughout most of the summer. During this time, the Cherokee Army makes use of a new treaty with the Kingdom of Louisiana to train themselves with a war game. The three weeks of practice attacks on the French military boost morale of the Cherokee with their new rifles and the inclusion of some experienced Seminole warriors. Just prior to the first autumn chills, the Cherokee Army with Cahokia warriors invade the Illinois Confederacy to liberate their new ally’s homeland, driving out the Kaskaskia and Peoria easily with a number of skirmishes.

-Throughout the summer, awaiting for the army to train and mobilize, Cherokia’s government makes use of its time by focusing on pressing domestic issues. Despite the fertile land the Cherokee own, they do not have the numbers to successfully compete with crop exports of its neighbors and so ranching is encouraged with importation of herds of cattle, many of which come from Texas and southern Georgia. As many farms convert their lands to the more lucrative leather trade, the need for slaves diminishes throughout the country.

-The Traditionalists in government push through a deal with the Modernists to establish a number of state-funded museums, art galleries, and theaters to promote a Cherokee twist and flavor of common European-themed structures. A number of Cherokee musicians begin to experiment with traditional instruments by the end of the year with notable symphonies of Mozart.

-While the Traditionalists managed to push Cherokee culture through an education plan the prior year, the Modernists in government push a sequel law creating a Amerindian university system in which European scholars are encouraged to teach at. Despite refusal from the most prominently educated men of Europe to come teach in a “backwater of the Americas”, the offer attracts many lesser known scholars, inventors, and mathematicians who see the Cherokee offer to teach in the country as a chance for the limelight.

-As construction of the railroad between Unegvadisi and Maubila finishes construction, raw material production is increased to help finance the expenses. Despite designed to move iron ore and coal throughout Cherokia, many of the trips the locomotives make by the end of the summer are used to ship newly purchased British cannons to the north to help in the Illinois civil war.

-Over the decades, many negro slaves have escaped from the the surrounding Anglo- and Franco-American nations into Cherokia, finding safety, a new life, and in many cases, love. From this love has grown a number of Afro-Amerindians throughout Cherokia by the 1850s. With the rise of abolition movements in the northeast of the continent and in Europe, an organization named “Civilization Against Enslavement” is founded with the goals of pressuring Catunuga into pushing for a more general abolitionist foreign policy toward Cherokia’s slave-holding neighbors.



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The Georgian Republic - Ruski
President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Capital: Savannah
Largest City: Atlanta


-Slightly chilled by the winter weather, the government of Georgia in Savannah organize an end to the Fifth Seminole War with a treaty to Cherokia, which, concerned for the wellbeing of fellow natives, opened its borders to Seminole refugees. Under the terms of the treaty, any Seminole warrior that flees to Cherokia must first make a solemn vow to never return or take up arms against Georgia. All who go say the words, but many army officers that oversee the oaths feel dissatisfied with the sincerity but glad to now have the entire peninsula open to white settlement and profiteering.

-With the southern peninsula finally under secure Georgian control and friendly borders everywhere else, President Stephens works throughout the early spring redirecting military expenditures. The need for a well-funded army is nearing its end and more funds are directed toward the navy, particularly to overhaul the cannons of the current fleet as well as put on reinforced metal plating.

-Seeing the rise in the use of breech-loading rifles over current musket models, many Georgian gunsmiths and workshops begin switching over production to keep up with the demand for new weaponry.

-To help give incentives for gunsmiths to further their craft, the government works out an export deal to the Empire of Mexico and the Austrian Empire for Georgian rifles. By the end of the year, the first cargo vessels make their way to Veracruz and Rijeka.

-As Irish immigrants come into Georgia, conservative protestant politicians in Savannah manage to push through the Christian Relief Tax Ordinance, a tax break that scales with the number of children white Georgian families have, with the stipulation that one child must already be born while the head of the household is employed in some manner. The goal is to relieve pressure on Georgian families with many mouths to feed while also encouraging the growth of the white Georgian population.

-In order to better communicate with naval affairs and the rest of the country, extensive telegraph lines are established between the ports in Jacksonville and the cities of Atlanta and Savannah throughout the late spring, with plans to erect more throughout out Georgia as settlements grow in the peninsula.

-As July approaches, President Stephens orders the new drydocks of Jacksonville on behalf of the Georgian national assembly to build more ships for an expanding Georgian Navy. Special funds are put to constructing military steamships with iron plating on the sides for added protection. Knowing the British Navy is the most powerful expansive in the world, Georgian officials tour through London and Liverpool on a recruitment drive of former English sailors to come to Georgia and help train and revitalize the naval officer corps. By the end of the summer, men with large mustaches and thick scouse accents yell and drill Georgian seamen across the ships.

-While the navy goes through a massive overhaul, some units of the Army are ordered to practice beach landing techniques from naval ships. Throughout the early fall until the seas become too cold and choppy, men under the supervision of Lieutenant Colonel Longstreet repetitively row large dories to shore and quickly organize their formations on the beach before going through a two mile march and then back to sea again.



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Kingdom of Louisiana - Pez
Monarch: Napoleon III
Capital: New Orleans
Largest City: New Orleans


-As warm breezes coming from the Gulf blow away the last chills of winter in early March, managing the economy for the year’s trade up and down the Mississippi once again takes priority for the government. After debate of financiers and wealthy men in the royal parliament pass the Royal Metal Standards Act, putting Louisiana on a bimetallism standard of silver and gold, 16 to 1, and establish the Royal Bank of Louisiana as a national bank.

-Just before the spring planting season begins, a sweeping tax break is given to farmers to help encourage a number of crops in Louisiana, including rice, soy, and sugar. A secondary subsidy is given to fishermen to make the Gulf of Mexico a more financially sound location to work.

-While the Three Cotton Kings - Virginia, Carolinas, and Georgia - are known the most for growing cotton in the Americas, the government in New Orleans passes a large subsidy for cotton growers in the kingdom to help compete with its southern neighbors. Parts of the law give tax breaks specifically to Irish immigrants to allow them to purchase land more easily and cheaply. Though the institute of slavery remains in the Kingdom of Louisiana, by the end of the year it is able to advertise its cotton as “immigrant grown”, though no distinction of cotton from Irish farms or slave plantations is made on export boxes.

-To help solidify the legitimacy of his throne and to ensure a royal lineage, King Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte asks for the hand of marriage of a noble Frenchwoman, Lady Catherine de Vendome, a cousin of the late Bourbon prince Louis-Joseph. Though not having yet met him, Lady Catherine accepts the proposal and moves to Louisiana from France in April, with a royal marriage three weeks later presided over by the Archbishop of New Orleans. Though clearly a marriage for politics, many newspapers in New Orleans write articles from “anonymous insider sources” that the pair have legitimately fallen in love.

-Not wanting romance to get in the way of work entirely, King Napoleon takes his bride on a state visit to the Ozark Federation in May for a honeymoon. Though Springfield is the capital of the federation, Napoleon uses his prestige of visiting to pressure President John C. Frémont to come to him in St. Louis, where constant leaks of their discussions are made to the newspapers - majority of which write of the king’s concerns for the poor and destitute around the whole continent and his “dire desire” to end poverty, leaving praise only for Louisiana’s monarch and little commendation for any of Frémont’s politics.

-Upon returning home, Napoleon III reaches across the aisle of the liberal side of parliament to pass the L'extinction Du Pauperism Act, creating a scaled property tax across the land and using the revenue to fund education programs, particularly to instruct immigrants in the French language. The law causes an uproar among the landed gentry, many of whom accuse the king of indirectly attacking the institute of slavery as the largest plantations own majority of the enslaved negroes in the kingdom.

-The beginning of the summer marked by the signing of a peace agreement with the Amerindian neighbor of Cherokia. Under the the deal, goods from the east are imported with cheapened tariffs while the Royal Army and the Army of the Cherokee hold a three week long annual war game called “Chasseur Indigène” near the border where the Mississippi begins to divide the nations. The games go well, with French officers impressed by the accuracy and speed in which the Cherokee used their breech-loading rifles over their own muskets and soon after the war department begins issuing orders to replace the military’s weapons with more modern equipment.

-The closeness of Louisiana and Cherokia comes under fire by some newspapers toward the end of the summer as trade from the Ohio River becomes restricted due to the Cherokia-Illinois war, some blaming the war games as an “encouragement of the savagery of Indians” and giving the Cherokee the ability to prolong the conflict.

-Toward the beginning of fall, the commerce department overseeing trade on the Mississippi diminish a degree launch a large construction project of building railroads from major river towns to the interior of the country. The hope is to pull the commerce and wealth of the river westward as well as allowing farmers and plantation owners in the west to more easily export their goods, thus easing the economic burden from up river.


NewYorkflag.png
Republic of New York - Native Hunter
President: Stephan Van Rensselaer IV
Capital: Albany
Largest City: New York City


-President Rensselaer spends much of the late winter working with the national assembly to consolidate their new African acquisitions purchased the year before. A thousand men are ordered to occupy the five forts in West Africa, garrisoning 200 men in each. After they arrive, the commanders of the forts make their way into the interior of the continent to meet with local tribesmen to announce New York presence and negotiate trade. The tribesmen along the coast welcome the New Yorkers as they had good relations with the previous Danish occupants, allowing the forts to have friendly neighbors in the land between them.

-The commanders then enter the Kingdom of Dahomey to meet with King Ghezo to enter in trade relations. King Ghezo offers slaves in return for guns as he has offered to European powers, but the New York military officers turn down the deal. With no alternative in his thought, the African monarch lets the Ango-Americans leave empty handed until they can come up with a better offer.

-Understanding that forts along the African coast are only as safe and economical if the Republic of New York can reach them, the navy receives funds to increase the size of the fleet. Many of the vessels are named after famous New Yorkers and American Revolution war heroes, such as the NYS Schulyer, NYS Franklin, and NYS Putnam.

-Delegates are sent to London, Paris, and Amsterdam in late spring to negotiate the acceptance of the Danish-New York fort deal. France and the Dutch accept the treaty as valid, though the British parliament voice a great deal of opposition unless New York agrees to both avoid the slave trade and crush any trade that the forts may come across.

-Meanwhile in spring, the Hudson Valley has a mining boom of clay due to the massive construction projects south in New York City. Brick factories soon pop up along the river, bringing both jobs and an economic boom to the region.

-Freshly graduated officers from West Point, having studied heavily of the Napoleonic Wars, push the General Staff to increase the army’s number of cannon. The government soon concedes to the army’s wishes and several foundries are constructed in the city of Buffalo.

-The national assembly and senate, being composed of mostly wealthy New York elites and landowners, pass the Land Recovery Act in June of 1851, permitting the sale of uninhabited New York land. Through loopholes, dodgy pricing, and incredibly specific tax breaks, majority of the land that is purchased after the law is passed just so happens to be the very men or relatives of them who created the law.

-Despite much of the land going to landed gentry, some common good is derived from the Land Recovery Act’s smaller articles that allots tracts of territory for a national railroad grid. With planned connections from New York City to Buffalo, Syracuse, Burlington, Albany, and Montpelier, surveyors map out the country for the routes to take while noting which hamlets and towns would make excellent stops along major routes.

-Impressed by the fitness and athleticism of the Iroquois in New York, the government passes the National Lacrosse League Act, nationalizing the lacrosse sport throughout the country and give greater attention to it. With its popularity already present in the west of the nation, it immediately begins competing for fans with the emerging sport of baseball, a regional favorite. Despite this, the first major game is set up for the early spring of next year, between two new teams, the Bisons and the Comrades.



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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Gnomical
President: Francis R. Shunk
Capital: Philadelphia
Largest City: Pittsburgh


-Despite the cold winds, President Shunk sails to Boston in late January to meet with President Anderson of the Commonwealth of New England. There, he spends several weeks negotiating trade deals between the two commonwealths as well as working out a treaty of mutual defense. The hope is, should Pennsylvania be attacked, the New England Navy will provide assistance immediately.

-When the president returns to Philadelphia, he works with the national assembly to help relieve the pressure on Boston with Irish immigrants by enacting laws that open the Frontier Land Grant Tax Act of 1850 to foreigners. While those that migrate from across the continent and Europe to settle in western Pennsylvania are not given immediate citizenship, a pledge of allegiance and a number of required years of residence gives an easy path for newcomers, or a shorter number of years with military service.

-In honor of Pennsylvania’s most famous citizens, a newly built science university in the capital is christened as the Franklin Institute. The university’s goals are to educate and promote the sciences in the nation while being well-funded by the government.

-Not wanting to fall behind the prestigious military academies of West Point or the Virginia Military Institute, the Commonwealth Army is given funds to establish the Reading Military Academy in the city of the same name outside of Philadelphia. As the campus finishes construction in the late spring, the first cadets are sworn in and immediately begin tinkering with the superiority of breech-loading rifles over the current musket models. Throughout the year, the cadets manage to promote the use of them over the current weapons in the army.

-In the summer, the government raises property taxes throughout the country by a small percentage to help fuel national infrastructure projects, including the westward railroad.

-By the end of the year, immigration to the city Pittsburgh surpasses its population of the capital, the first city in the country to ever do so. Despite this, many fear for Pittsburgh’s economic growth to match its inhabitant rise as the conflict between the Cherokee and Illinois Confederacy begin to choke the flow of goods up and down the Ohio River.



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Republic of Quebec - Heyitsjiwon
President: Wolfred Nelson
Capital: Quebec City
Largest City: Montreal


-As a light snow falls in Quebec City, the newly formed conservative government makes quick use of their newly gained political power in January by passing several laws regarding education and the clergy, allowing many to have freedom to teach theology in schools and put priests on education councils throughout the nation. Heavily favored by President Nelson, newspapers in Montreal dub the collection of laws “The Nelson Laws”.

-Following the passing of The Nelson Laws, the government moves to allow open immigration of anyone baptized Roman Catholic from Europe and those from France in particular. Irish immigrants immediately begin making their way to Montreal, surprisingly more so from neighboring Labrador than Ireland, while many young French supporters of the Party of Order in France make their way to Quebec seeking a potential political career in a nation sharing similar values, politics, and language.

-Fearing that the Québécois military may not have the full strength that it could, the Army of Quebec opens enlistment to the foreigners that begin to migrate to the nation. The Foreign Legion of Quebec is established shortly after, and receives more recruits as the government allows full citizenship to anyone who serves the country for ten years.

-As the late spring thaws the snow and ice, an expedition of the newly formed Foreign Legion is sent to the far northern reaches to occupy Baffin Island. They settle construct a fort in an area the native Inuits call “Iqaluit” and thus name the fort as such. Two platoons of men are then sent to Cape Dorset, where they hoist the Quebec flag high over the small port to show all English vessels sailing in the Hudson Strait who owns both sides of the vital waterway.

-With the passage to the Hudson Bay in Quebec control, a passive offer to purchase lands across the water is given to the Hudson Bay Company. Having enjoyed a near monopoly of the fur trade in the region, the Company turns down the offer while British investors, many with political connections in London, worry about a conflict over the land in the future.

-While the land across the bay remains inaccessible, the government launches a cartography and geological survey of the lands that are in their control for the purpose of resource exploitation. Throughout the summer, teams survey and travel across Quebec’s wilderness and return with a report stating the largest resources in the nation is by and large great quality timber and furs. The report also list iron, gold, and asbestos as potential mining opportunities throughout the north.

-In July, realizing that large numbers of immigrants were coming to the nation, the government issues a general census to be held. Cities and settlements account for their residents throughout the late summer and fall and just prior to Christmas release a report estimating just under a million souls living in the nation, around 950,000. Majority reside in the southern regions with the population understandably growing smaller the more north one travels, though accounting of the native Inuit remain elusive.



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Commonwealth of Virginia - Joshuadium
President: Abraham Lincoln
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Norfolk


-President Lincoln breaks from the long political battles of his majority opposition in the legislature throughout the late winter by dealing with military matters that all sides can agree on. As the use of breech-loading rifles grow in prominence around the Americas, Virginia leaps on the new weapon technology as well. Thousands of Georgian rifles are given to the Army of Virginia while older muskets are retired or allowed by the soldier to keep as a personal weapon. To help adjust the infantry to their new weapons, General Lee orders daily target practice and reloading drills for the army. As the snow thaws in the early spring, the sounds of gunfire is constantly heard around Virginian barracks and forts.

-Understanding that the breech-loaded weapons are not a super weapon and the soldiers will still be exposed to hand-to-hand combat, Colonel Pickett under Lee’s command, adds an additional weekly drill of bayonet charging.

-Throughout March and April, men from the army most familiar with the most rural lands in the nation are chosen to form an elite scouting corps, jokingly dubbed by other units as “The White Indians” or, having been put under the command of Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart, “Stuart’s Indians”. The men use their knowledge of tracking, foraging, and general rural living to successfully train in scouting for the greater Army of Virginia.

-Receiving great praise from both sides of the aisle in Richmond, Lincoln secures a Non-Aggression Treaty with the Carolina Confederacy. The treaty allows Virginian and Carolinian armies to cease guarding their mutual border while also pledging to come to the other’s aid in the event of a war.

-Looking for an easy political win in Richmond, President Lincoln manages to pass the Urban Parks Bill, a law mandating the center of major cities in the Commonwealth to build and maintain municipal parks, allowing a public space for recreation and relaxation.

-In June, large funds are given to the Virginia Military Institute, the nation’s most prestigious military academy, to expand an R&D department to analyse new military technology and its possible applications for the army and navy.

-Throughout the summer, Richmond’s government deals with economic matters for the country by firstly managing a trade deal to reduce general tariffs between Virginia and the Republic of Maryland. A similar trade deal is brokered with Albany, Republic of New York where cotton from plantations are exported to New York textile mills.

-While the House of Burgundy is focused on economic matters, President Lincoln manages to once again split his conservatives on laws dealing with slaves. Managing to pressure an addition to the Mining Proliferation Act, which gives businesses more opportunities to mine coal and other metals in the Appalachian mountains, Virginian plantation owners are now mandated to provide adequate shelter, propper bedding, and at least one hot meal a day to their negro property. The arguments used to pass the rider is that “a healthy and happy negro is a hard working negro” to which only a few owners vote dissently to.



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United Venezuelan States - Amfleet
President: General José Antonio Páez
Capital: Caracas
Largest City: Caracas


-A Venezuelan delegation makes its way to Paris in February to garner French support for their independence. President La Valette welcomes the men who, playing on the Frenchman’s religious beliefs, manage to persuade France to send small fleet of warships as a “humanitarian effort” to the Colombian stronghold of Puerto La Cruz on the rebel’s east. Once the French navy arrives, it begins blockading the ports of any vessels from entering.

-Confident that the eastern port city cannot be reinforced by Bogota, General Páez orders his army to begin besieging. While the city itself becomes surrounded, men of Los Cosiatos manage to break through the port defenses and set fire to the warehouses and docks there. Seeing many of the city’s food stockpiles go up in flames, the mayor orders the Colombian army to stand down and allow the Venezuelan nationals to enter. Though not a very bloody battle, the decisive conquest of the east sends messages throughout the world that the Venezuelans are a powerful force and now can shift its entirely focus westward.

-Though the fires of the docks in Puerto La Cruz were an act made in the heat of battle, the rebel leaders begin to utilize it as a staged tactic against the Colombians upon seeing its success. Throughout the spring, small units of Venezuelan rebels take small sloops along the coast using hit-and-run tactics against the Colombian navy and ports. The coastal cities of Maracaibo, Santa Marta, and Barranquilla suffer major fires as well as looting of gunpowder, muskets, and any valuables that unfortunately lay stored on the docks.

-By April, President Bolivar had managed to mobilize the full force of the Gran Colombian army and orders it to march east to put down the Venezuelan rebellion. Having fought with Bolivar to liberate the nation from the Spanish decades prior, General Páez manages to anticipate the moves his opponent makes. Weak defenses are built along the assumed border between Venezuela and Colombia, which are easily broken by the invading forces. As the Colombians march eastward however, they discover farm after farm has been burned denying them critical resupplies.

-The Colombian Army, hoping to find resupply in the city of Barinas in early May and confident in winning majority of the skirmishes thus far, makes its march to the city, only to find General Páez awaiting with a Venezuelan army of equal force. The Battle of Barinas thus became the first major battle of the war, with Colombian forces outflanked and morale dropping, forcing them to retreat back west with heavy casualties.

-A week after the battle, a Los Cosiatos diplomat makes its way to the Republic of Ecuador to petition for military aid against Gran Colombia. Offering news of the successful capture of Puerto La Cruz and the Battle of Barinas, Ecuador declares war on Gran Colombia and in June marches along the coast toward the city of Cali. However, Peru seeking to exploit the growing South American conflict, immediately declares war on Ecuador in order to secure what it has long sought as its rightful boundaries.

-While the Battle of Barinas gave the Venezuelans full control of the interior of the land and Ecuadoran forces are pressuring Bogota from the west, General Páez chooses to keep a defensive posture throughout the rest of the summer, refusing to invade Gran Colombia proper to avoid being seen as the aggressor. By the end of September, Gran Colombian forces manage to hold back the Ecuadorian Army from Cali, but Peruvian forces manage to march up to the Maranon River in Ecuador’s southeast.

-Having proven to the world that the United Venezuelan States are a legitimate military and political force, General Páez at the end of the year pushes for international recognition from European states in hopes of ending the conflict soon. France immediately recognizes the nation’s sovereignty, followed by the United Kingdom and Kingdom of the Netherlands in December. While President Bolivar does not sue for peace before the turn of the new year, the growing political, military, and foreign pressure on the aging leader is becoming an unbearable burden on his shoulders.

Turn 3 Due Sunday, February 10th 2019
 

The Yonah locomotive, photographed in 1852.

Purchased from Pennslyvania the previous year, it pulled the first train to Unegvadisi. While railways are not unknown in Cherokia, they have yet to reach the bulk of the nation. Five years ago, the English engineer Robert Stephenson visited to help to supervise the construction of the first railway in Cherokia (lacking work due to the railway bust in Britain, the development of which began after the railway mania of the 1840s. Traditionalists claimed that the railways would poison the water and skies, while modernists promoted the benefits of cheap and fast transportation. The railway began construction in 1847 and was completed three years later, making use of timber trestles and earthwork in its construction. Although the line was completed at the end of 1849, work still continues to upgrade the line by replacing wooden trestles with earthworks or brick bridges, and in rationalizing the route and constructing additional signal boxes and sidings to allow locomotives to pass. The network is continuing to expand, and new lines to Louisiana and Georgia are already underway. Although railways with steam locomotives have been around for only a single generation, the Americans have innovated on the basic design pioneered with the Planet locomotive considerably. Swiveling trucks under engines and wagons allow them to go around tight bends, rugged designs for the rough terrain, powerful new engines, and fireboxes that can burn wood with spark-arresting flared chimneys to prevent fires breaking out. These new powerful locomotives have been developed recently and the Yonah exemplfies many of these new traits, and even the traditionalists begrudgingly admit the power of these engines. Perhaps one day, these will rumble across all of america.
 
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CHAPTER III: “Manifest Destiny”

Turn 3 but not I guess.png



Turn Music - “Do They Miss Me At Home?” by Carolina A. Mason




World Events, Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty Two:


-Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson form a company in the Commonwealth of New England to develop volcanic rifles.
-Cuban nationalists rise up against their Spanish colonial lords in the eastern part of the island, responding to cruelty to Cubans and preference to Spaniard-born elites in governance.
-Following President Bolivar’s surrender to Venezuelan forces, he is ousted in a coup by General José María Dionisio Melo y Ortiz over what is deemed “a failure of military command on a catastrophic scale”. The general now ruling the nation suspends the constitution ‘until the war with Ecuador can be resolved’. President Bolivar is forcibly retired to his villa in the countryside of Bogota on house arrest while Colombian forces push Ecuadorian troops into a retreat.
-State-sponsored colonization of southern Chile begins by German nationals.
-Several missionaries from the Republic of Zion are killed and scalped on the plains by the Lakota Sioux, causing concern and tension among the Mormon states.
-The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of Transvaal in southern Africa.
-The first British public toilet for women opens in Bedford Street, London.
-War breaks out in South America between the State of Bueno Aires, the Argentina Confederacy, and the Republic of Entre Rios over strained border issues and water rights. Initially, the Confederacy makes large gains against Entre Rios, but is outflanked by the Buenos Aires joining the conflict.
-Rumors are made that the Five Joaquins Gang, known for horse theft and murder in California have fled north into the Republic of Alta for refuge.
-Francophones in Arcadia unite under a newly formed Parti National Français, as a growing political identity and threatens the uneasy political balance of the country under President Edmund Walker Head.
-Imperial Mexico grows concerned with the number of Anglo-American filibusters entering its northwestern territory of Sonora and Baja California.
-The conjecture of the four color theorem is proposed, as student Francis Guthrie of University College London presents the question of proving, mathematically, that no more than four colors are needed to give separate colors to bordering shapes on a map.
-Mayan nationals break out in revolt against the United States of Central America, Republic of Yucatan, and the Empire of Mexico with the goal of creating an indigenous, independent state, though the rebellions in each of the three nations go uncoordinated with one another.
-Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo, dies from stroke related complications.
-Commonwealth of New England Presidential Elections: Republican Party nominee Franklin Pierce wins the presidency over Federalist Party incumbent Hugh J. Anderson over issues involving the nation’s interventions abroad.
-France establishes Devil’s Island in its south american territory as a penal colony.
-Louis Braille, inventor of braille and teacher of the blind, passes away.
-A Texan army expedition into Comancheria results in the Battle of Rio Grande Gorge, where Texan cavalry ambushes a large warband of Comanche travelling through the canyon. Despite the bottleneck of the terrain, Texan firearms and discipline repel the Amerindian waves of warriors twice their number. It is hoped the victory there will quiet the border, at least for a time.
-Harry Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is published in Boston.


Current Player Involved Conflicts:

Yucatec War: Republic of Yucatan vs. Georgian Republic


Other Conflicts in the Western Hemisphere:

Ecuador-Peruvian War: Republic of Ecuador vs. Republic of Peru vs. Gran Colombia (Since 1851)
Rio de la Plata War: Argentina Confederacy vs. State of Bueno Aires + Republic of Entre Rios
Chiapas Rebellion: Empire of Mexico vs. Mayan Rebels
Yucatec Rebellion: Republic of Yucatan vs. Mayan Rebels
Petén Rebellion: United States of Central America vs. Mayan Rebels




Alta Flag.png
Republic of Alta - Milke
President: Michael Quixano
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Sacramento


-Having successful relationships with the Duwamish Peoples near Camp Vesperia and the Chinook Peoples further along the coast, the government in Alta launches a large annexation of land between their current borders and the Russian territories. Full of lawyers expertising in property laws due to the ‘48 Rush, a number of Altan delegates are sent to the various Amerindian peoples within the new boundaries of the country to maintain peace, entice trade, and coordinate their tribal laws with the Altan constitution. Various natives north of Sacramento, having little to experience in dealing with Anglo- or Spanish- Americans, all agree to having regional autonomy in their current lands in exchange for official Altan citizenship and remaining tax free until 1862.

-Gold, the main drive for anyone in the region to put a pickaxe into the ground, has distracted many Altans from the potential mining or use of other ore prospecting in the country. As a result, Sacramento orders large imports of iron and steel, most of which make the long trek from Pittsburgh down the Mississippi the circumventing South America six months later to Alta. Steam machinery for various mining operations or supplemental industries are also ordered but suffer the long wait of arrival, if the ships survive storms and rough seas at all. As a result, financially savvy Altans are contracted with the government to go into the eastern American nations to secure metal sources and good quality shippers. As a result, a handful make their way to a new Georgian university focusing on metallurgy in the port of Miami .

-To coordinate the massive growth in land mass that doubles the original size of Alta, President Quixano creates the Bureau of Land Management late in February. The executive department is given the order to oversee distribution of land to homesteaders through the New Lands Act of 1852 which allows any man or woman unhostile to the nation of Alta to settle in the new additions in the north free of charge on any parcel of land not claimed by the autonomous tribes. The only requirement for settlers are to officiate their claims with the BLM in order to prevent property disputes.

-With heavy funding by the legislation, the Bureau organizes a number of land surveyors and cartographers to officially map out just what Altan has put their flag on. The Altan army attaches several of its scouting units to the survey teams, where they coordinate strategic locations to put small military outposts throughout the region.

-As per the constitution, a national referendum campaign on taxation is launched in May. In return for providing public services to various cities such as firefighting, policing, and mail services, the Altan government would develop a taxation bracket system. Campaigners for the tax proposal cite the need for Altan nationalism and unity, while their opposition tout it as theft from the mines for services “grown men could do themselves”.

-The vote is put to the ballot on July 10th after a month full of fiery deliberation. When the final tally is counted, the slimmest of margins push the president’s proposal into effect. As his opposition gripes of miscounts or rigging, President Quixano pushes the measure immediately into work. As the Bureau of Land Management already established itself as competent, capable, and functioning, they are given the powers to levy the taxes, especially over the newly annexed regions while building a national census in which to address how much revenue Sacramento should receive from the residents.

-With the north handled, and the summer rush of new settlers in full swing, the government turns its eyes back to the border with Imperial Mexico and the large settlement of San Francisco. More militiamen and regular soldiers are stationed in Fort Rocinante, where they are encouraged to mingle with the townsfolk of the fort as well as take leave in across the bay in Mexican San Francisco in order to establish friendlier relations with the peasants beneath the imperial government. It goes well until a drunken brawl out of a saloon in Mexico’s side by some Altan soldiers and pro-imperialists draw the local imperial barracks to mobilize. The Altan soldiers scramble back across the bay to their fort before the Mexicans capture them and they avoid reprisal by their commanders only by addressing the fact that the Mexican army did not pursue them across the bay into Alta, something with heavy political potential.

-With France’s stonewalling on official recognition of the Republic of Alta’s independence, General Andrés Pico’s delegation is ordered from Paris to London in late July to try their luck with the English. Having absorbed several years of foreign diplomacy, Pico and his men enter the British Parliament fully armed with maps, legal arguments, moral assertions, and the strut of confidence. Three weeks of discussions with many MPs and two encounters with Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley, the United Kingdom finally agrees to recognize the Republic of Alta and its recent annexations as independent from the Empire of Mexico, the essential turning point in Alta’s preservation of equality among men compared to Mexico’s institution of slavery.



Cherokee Flag.png
Cherokia - Sobotnik
First Beloved Man: Major Ridge
Governing Party: Modernists
Capital: Cutonuga
Largest City: Cutonuga


-With the successful occupation of Cohokia tribal lands, Major Ridge sends his son John Ridge to negotiate a peace treaty with the Illinois Confederacy. When the Cherokee delegation arrives at the Council of Tribes, they lay out bluntly that Cherokia’s military and technological strength has been no match for the Illinois and that peace is the only solution for all tribes. The Cherokee then wait for twelve days as the Illinois tribes debate among themselves the merits of peace versus drawing Cohokia back into their fold. After deliberations are over, a peace treaty is announced in which the Illinois will cede Cohokia to Cherokia and accept a trade deal in order to modernize their own tribes. However, the Kaskaskia Tribe angered by the peace, cede themselves from the Confederacy at the end of February.

-With both banks of the Ohio River under Cherokia control, John Ridge leaves the Illinois Confederacy directly to Cherokee ally, the Shawnee Confederacy. Once in Prophetstown, negotiations are held to extend the Cherokee railroad system to the Shawnee capital, which is immediately agreed to.

-Upon John Ridge’s return to his father at Cutonuga, the Cherokia government immediately creates a national infrastructure plan, designing a web of railroads throughout the nation and parts of western Georgia. To help move the project along, construction of new locomotives are ordered by the government as well as the expansion of coal and iron mines in the east Appalachia.

-To help attract and promote the growth of new inventions in Cherokia, a national patent office is created. Applications are streamlined for ease, and the government offers free translation of patents into English and French. The hope for quantity over quality of patents for Cherokia soon attracts many failed inventors or ostracized theoreticians from Europe who hope to gain funding by a native people they think they can dazzle with European ingenuity.

-With the number of Europeans taking interest in settling in Cherokia, citizenship tests are pushed out to ensure the culture of the nation survives, though with few actual limits, primarily a test in understand Cherokee and at least some familiarity with one other major native tongue in the country.

-With peace among the Illinois and friendship growing with the Shawnee, Cherokee linguists travel to both confederacies to map out ways of putting the various tongues of those tribes to paper like the Cherokee have done so for the past decades. Some elders reject the notion or at times, even the possibility, of putting sounds on paper but most of tribes cooperate.

-Major Ridge, in feeling the grips of his age throughout the year, has his thoughts on the medical advancements he has seen in his lifetime. With that in mind, he works with the government to push a law requiring all districts to maintain at least one hospital, as sanitary as possible, with modernized, universal vaccinations.

-Junaluska, head warchief of the Cherokee army, instructs units to begin training with entrenching tools, building trenches and defensive ramparts. He becomes impressed by the speed in which the Amerindian warriors take to the tool and quickly mandates that every soldier gains one issued alongside a firearm. Delving deeply into European books regarding war and conflict, the general becomes impressed by stories of the Kingdom of Prussia and its successes in the French & Indian War to modern days. He immediately brings his research to the government, which agree to enact several military reforms with a conscription program backed by a volunteer reserve. With the national rail service well underway, plans to incorporate the mobilization of troops with locomotives begins to be planned as well.



Flag of Georgia.png
The Georgian Republic - Ruski
President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Governing Party:
Capital: Savannah
Largest City: Atlanta


-With the weather warming into spring mid-March, construction begins in Savannah of the newly created First Bank of Georgia, a central bank running on bimetallism which has become a popular currency-backing in the Americas. When construction of the Greek-Revival style building completes in August, lines of credit are issued to citizens around the capital, while plans of expanding branches in Atlanta and Jacksonville are made for the next year.

-As economic competition with the other two Cotton Kings continues, the city of Atlanta considers ways in which to promote its wealth without large costs to potential businessmen and investors. With consideration, large number of abandoned warehouses, foundries, and workshops in the city and along the Chattahoochee River are purchased from their property owners. The city then spends the next few months funding the refurbishment of each site and then rents them to developing businesses on the cheap. City officials praise the recycling of old buildings and helping grow the industry of the city by preventing up-and-coming businessmen from overspending on infrastructure.

-As the launch of the first few iron-armored naval vessels go to sea, President Stephens works with the Georgian legislature to pass further funding bills to construct several more ships. With the prominence of the Georgian Navy on the rise, the president touts it as a political success that can be used in campaigning in future elections.

-The development of Georgian arms has led to the rise of foundries and metallurgical sciences dispersed sporadically throughout the republic. The knowledge and experience of blacksmiths and chemists throughout the country soon becomes blended, then distilled, as development into the Florida peninsula grows. The culmination is given physical housing in the developing port city of Miami as a university focusing on chemistry is built. While the bulk of students are Georgians, a handful of Altans gain admittance, rumored by pay-off than actual experience in such fields but the financial spike helps gain the school notoriety.

-On a hot day in July, President Stephens has state dinner with ambassador Jose Carlos Santiago of the Republic of Yucatan. Over the course of the banquet, tensions rise between the statesmen over discussions of slavery. Near the end of the event, direct and vulgar insults are scolded between many of those participating, resulting in the Yucatan ambassador storming out of the hall, rebutted a single day later with Stephen’s order for the expulsion of the entire Yucatan diplomatic mission to Georgia. The Republic of Yucatan, seeking to dispute the expulsion, announces a full embargo on all Georgian products and furthers the strain by harassing Georgian ships in the Caribbean. The diplomatic spat concludes with the Georgian government declaring war on the Mexican republic.

-Having trained for beach landings aggressively the past year, Lieutenant Colonel Longstreet is given a promotion to Brigadier General and ordered to coordinate with the growing Georgian navy to invade the Yucatan peninsula. With their opponent already entrenched in a bloody rebellion of indigenous Mayans, it is hoped the conquest of the Yucatan will be quick without difficulty.

-On August 2nd, Longstreet’s 1,500 men land on the northern beaches of the Yucatan and begin to march on the city of Panabá as a vanguard for the remaining 10,000 Georgian troops to land ashore. Sporadic skirmishes are encountered throughout the march, but full battle is not fought until just outside the city, where superior Georgian arms and discipline easily overcome the smaller Yucatan military and Longstreet victoriously conquers, enters, and occupies the first foreign city.

-Plans to launch a conquest of the capital of Mérida are put together as more Georgians come through the beachhead. But before a march westward can be assembled, a malaria outbreak among the troops spread throughout several companies. As mid September passes, the march continues to be delayed as the disease cripples the Georgian army, though not enough to keep an adequate defense of what has been captured thus far.

-President Stephens lets the army in the Yucatan occupied area wait for recovery and continues on to other foreign affairs until news of continued campaigning comes. He sends an envoy to the Department of Panama governor in Gran Colombia, Tomás de Herrera to establish friendly relations directly with the territory. The subversion of Bogota’s authority goes very noticed by General José María Melo, though with the secession of Venezuela and the war between Ecuador presses him away from dealing with the issue.

-As the occupation of Panabá goes throughout the rest of the year, Georgian soldiers healthy enough to patrol are ordered to round up Yucatan Africans, chain then, and board them onto naval vessels to return to Georgia as newly acquired slaves. This sparks an outrage among the Yucatan government who vow revenge despite heavily split between their Mayan rebellion and the Georgian invasion. The United Kingdom, hearing the news of Georgia’s actions, begins sending the Royal Navy into the Caribbean to patrol, causing a rise in tensions between the European power and Savannah going into the new year.



Flag of Louisiana.png
Kingdom of Louisiana - Pez
Monarch: Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte I
Governing Party: Parti Régimist
Capital: New Orleans
Largest City: New Orleans


-Knowing the fiery rhetoric abolitionist John Brown can use to rile a crowd against a politician, institute or country with ties to slavery, the kingdom’s government enacts a series of policies to counteract whatever unfavorable prattle he yells in the Ozarks. Pamphlets exhorting the policies of L'extinction Du Pauperism Act and its heavy taxation on slave owners are dispersed throughout the Federation while many Louisianan expatriates make public statements about the “considerable compassion of the king.”

-Hoping to double down on the publicity of the L'extinction Du Pauperism Act pamphlets, many are published in France as well. While Quebec advertises itself as a conservative francophile American state, the pamphlets promote the kingdom’s progressiveness instep with French freethinkers as well as an “heir to the monarchies of old”. Throughout the rest of the year, many of the lower classes of France, either seeking their fortune or those reminiscing of Napoleon Bonaparte’s victories, begin immigrating to New Orleans.

-Recognition of Venezuela following their victory over Colombian forces is enacted by New Orleans in April. Immediately afterward, a trade deal is agreed with Louisiana’s new Caribbean neighbor. Cretonne sewn clothing and engine parts are exported to Venezuela in return for cheap prices on oranges, limes, coffee beans, and other agrarian products. With growing foreign trade in mind, the government orders the expansion of ports across the nation’s coast. Despite the hopes for four or five new docks, surveyors report back that the deep swamps of the country’s border with the Gulf leaves only one feasible area - Cypremort Point on Vermilion Bay. But immediate orders to begin construction there are stalled further by the rugged swamp inland slowing construction crews as well as fears that the bay and its small access strait to the gulf could be too narrow and shallow for heavy oceanic vessels to dock.

-Delegates are sent to President John C. Frémont in late May with a bold offer to peacefully annex the Ozark Federation into the Kingdom of Louisiana, pointing out that unity would give the Ozarks plenty of law enforcement, military protection from Indians, and access to the rich treasury of the kingdom to expand infrastructure. President Frémont coldly turns down the proposal and ejects the French delegates from the capital, but news of the meeting quickly spread through various papers across the Federation.

-Contemptuous of President Frémont long before Louisiana’s intrusions, the city of St. Louis immediately declares itself loyal to the Louisianan crown, followed by many of the settlements along the Mississippi. French speaking settlements along the Ozark-Louisianan border also rise up in a bloodless coup to throw their loyalty behind New Orleans. President Frémont flees from the capital not only for fear of his life but from disgrace and humiliation the Ozarks have delivered him in openly defying his government. His last chance at redemption is shattered when he goes to the Ozark’s only military post - Fort Smith - and is barred from passing through its gates as the militia commander asserts loyalty to the Napoleon than him.

-Despite much of the riverlands and border regions throwing in allegiance to New Orleans, much of the rural regions of the Ozarks remain hesitant to join. But with half of their country already abandoning their independence and rumors of potential Mormon invasion from the north throws their stubbornness into doubt.

-Throughout the late spring and summer, the government pushes a ‘Nuavelle Colnie’ movement to encourage immigration of loyal Louisianan citizens to the Ozark frontier that have switched over. Those that uproot and move for the sake of the nation are given sums of money to plant themselves in the Ozarks and build infrastructure around them. In their wake, roads are cleared of debris and small bridges over the rivers of the land are constructed.

-In the late summer, King Napoléon pushes the Nègre Métayage Act, an intricate and complex law that awards slave owning plantations subsidies and tax-free land purchases in return for freeing their chained negroes and leasing their land to them. Contracts must be signed between the freemen and the owners, however, guaranteeing a number of years of labor and a share in any profits derived from the leased grounds.

-In early November, Louisianans go to the voter booths for the parliamentary elections, with the Ozarks and the position of slaves in the country as the main political points debated over. When all of the ballots are counted, the Parti Régimist are declared the majority winners of seats, while Libéraux Protecteurs made large gains at the cost of Rivière Party, mostly in counties with large number of freemen. Despite this, the Rivière Party maintains a strong presence in parliament as the main opposition.

-In December, newspapers announce the joyous news that the royal family will soon have a new addition in 1853 as Queen Catherine is with child. Many in New Orleans pray for their good fortune and a male heir to the throne.



NewYorkflag.png
Republic of New York - Native Hunter
President: Stephan Van Rensselaer IV
Governing Party: Beaver Party
Capital: Albany
Largest City: New York City


-1852 is brought in with excitement by the lacrosse match between the Bisons and the Comrades. The game goes back and forth with the teams, while not as many points are scored as hoped. Despite the town favorites - the Bisons - losing by a few points, the crowds are cheered by the game and optimistic for the coming year.

-To ease the worries of the United Kingdom regarding New York’s newly acquired African forts, a naval squadron of sloops-of-war and frigates are stationed in the Gulf of Guinea. They are charged not only with protection of New York property, but to apprehend any potential slave ship in the region and free its captives. Throughout the year, a handful of merchant vessels are boarded in the region, revealing two to be carrying the human cargo. The ships become impounded, the captives released back home while the crews are imprisoned in Fort Fredensborg to await trial or British custody.

-With transatlantic naval operations now a going concern for the New York Navy, a suitable academy to forge the finest officers is funded at King’s Point on Long Island. Drawing on a long naval history of the Dutch as well as the English, the academy’s motto quickly is boasted as Optimus Semper, which the New Yorkers aim to achieve. Ground is broken in a ceremony by President Rennsselaer in early March.

-Hoping to grow a commercial empire spanning the globe like the United Kingdom, outreach to Denmark is made again with economic interest in the Nicobar Islands of the east Indian Ocean. Having endured one malaria outbreak after another, failing every colony built on the islands, Denmark easily makes a financial deal to sell the islands to New York.

-While the distance from New York City to the Nicobar Islands is quite literally on the other side of the world, a search for a suitable location to give travelling New York ships safety and relief along the way is potentially found on the east coast of Africa. An envoy is sent to the Sultanate of Muscat and Oman. After some deliberation, the New Yorkers gain the full leasing of Mafia Island for a period of 100 years.

-News of Venezuela’s victory over Colombia reaches Albany in April. With a new neighbor in the Americas, the government quickly votes to approve recognition. Afterward, large trade treaties with individual Caribbean states are made, selling rifles and cannon to Cherokia, Louisiana, and Venezuela. In return, Louisiana begins exporting cotton harvested by freemen to New York while Venezuela agrees to leasing the port of Scarborough just off the South American coast.

-The Trans-National Railway Line begins construction across the country in late spring as the last winter snow storms melt away. When completed, it is hoped that passengers will take no more than a day or two to cross the entire nation, as well as speed up the transition of goods.

-Expeditions into the dark continent are funded in the summer in search for trade with the natives as well as to survey the region around the coastal forts. Large regions of lush vegetation is noted, as well as the rich amount of gold jewelry worn by the natives. Soon enough, contact with the Ashanti Empire is made though. Despite the great wealth the African nation has, some of the New York explorers are dismayed by the expansive institute of slavery within it.

-By the end of the summer, Albany passes the Industrial Endowment Act of 1852, giving large subsidies to textile mills in the entire region surrounding New York City. With fresh cotton supplies from Louisiana, much of the horizon seen from New York City is checkered with factories and smokestacks.

-On Tuesday, the 9th of November, President Rensselaer convenes the New York government for a general and normal day of politicking in the capitol. Just before the lunch hour, the daily routine is abruptly shattered by a massive explosion in the building. The initial blast kills several men, some senators, while the capitol partially collapses afterward encasing many under brick and wood. The president crawls from the building as nearby townsfolk of Albany rush to unbury their government and save as many lives as they can. Rensselaer suffers from a gash on the head, but a doctor examining him finds no other wounds. However Vice President Cornelius Vanderbilt is withdrawn from the rubble unconscious, suffering a large foot-long splinter in his left leg. After an hour of surgery, the leg is removed while the Vice President continues to fail to wake up. By the end of clean up three days later, the death toll is counted up to 17, with triple that injured and not a single clue to who or why such a horrendous act was put into life.



Pennsylvania Flag.png
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Gnomical
President: Francis R. Shunk
Governing Party: Freedom Party
Capital: Philadelphia
Largest City: Pittsburgh

-The surge in population over the past few years has made a rise in anticipation for the next election in 1853. Attentive to the massive undertaking of counting every new vote, the commonwealth’s government spends much of its energy toward readying the voting booths. While spring is spent mostly on surveying the best polling locations in urban centers and creating special mail routes for collecting votes of rural villages, the summer and fall sees an intensive interview process of ballot counters, poll booth operators, and honest poll tax collectors to insure the most free, partisan, and genuine election results next year.

-Vice President Henry P. Williamson announces his candidacy for president in early February. For much of the spring he campaigns throughout the eastern half of the nation with the slogan, “Equality and Industry is Strength” while convincing voters that President’s Shunk’s successful policies will continue with his election. In early July, Williamson makes a grand entrance into the western side of the country by draping the first train from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh with his face and party colors, tying the completion of the railroad through Appalachia to his party.

-The leaders of the opposition parties - George Shulzty of the Steadfast Party and Charles K. Thompson of the Whig Party - quickly throw their hat into the ring in June. Shulzty urges voters to consider the Susquehanna defensive line as an antagonist to other nations and expansion of the navy as a misuse of tax money throughout the year, while Thompson’s campaign promises are described as “like Williamson’s policies, only diluted with dullness”.

-In late April, ground is broken in the sandy soil of Cape May to establish the Commonwealth Naval Academy. The school is constructed adjacent to the Delaware Bay so to be near the construction of a future naval yard planned next year and to help future officers quickly be trained on the water. Goals in the charter go beyond most naval academies to simply instruct applicants in naval warfare and produce a nation’s best seamen, but also to identify by merit and conduct the best placement of graduates in the Commonwealth Navy.

-For the remainder of the year, Pennsylvanian troops go through heavy drilling on the far western lowlands of Ohio. Cadets from the military academy as well as veteran generals command units in mock battles, long marches, and honed bayonet charges. Much of the training focuses on quick reloading of the new breech-loading rifles as well as fast-paced marching. Each week the troops move further southward across the lowlands until they reach the Ohio River where they encamp for the winter until further orders.

-With heavy press criticism and falling behind in the polls, Charles K. Thompson of the Whig Party drops out of the race for presidency in late November and urges his supporters to vote for Williamson in the coming election next year.



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Republic of Quebec - Heyitsjiwon
President: Wolfred Nelson
Governing Party: Blue Party
Capital: Quebec City
Largest City: Montreal


-Heavy snow falls throughout the winter and late into spring in the Republic of Quebec and understanding that this is a climate the nation endures for much of the year pushes the government to adopt alternative means of drilling the army in winter warfare. Numerous Inuit from the far north are hired as wilderness camp guides as the army trains in several feet of snow. The Inuit teach the men how to make snowshoes as well as make heavy winter gear from trapped furs, giving the Québécois the ability to march over many miles regardless of weather, while they in return teach the natives of the north the French language and the sign of the cross.

-President Nelson sends an ambassador to Boston to express solidarity with the Republic of New England over the bounty hunter political dispute with the Carolina Confederacy. The two governments quickly warm to each other in the cold winter and work out a defensive treaty with one another, as well as a trade deal to reduce tariffs on general goods.

-As the late spring thaws ice packs throughout the Hudson Bay Strait, Quebec launches a large passage tax on foreign vessels sailing between Quebec and Baffin Island. Small boats sailing out of Fort Iqaluit to chase down vessels and demand payment for the tax. Some English vessels outrun the taxation while others complain of nationalizing piracy. Soon enough, delegations from both Toronto and London go to Quebec City to demand an explanation and suspension of the tariffs but President Nelson refuses to hear them throughout their stay.

-Seeing the growing tension with its neighbors, the government passes the 1852 Naval and Forestry Act, opening up large swaths of thick forests for timber companies so long as some of the lumber is used in construction of newly ordered naval vessels. While designed mostly to help expand the Québécois navy, Parti Canadien pushes a number of riders onto the bill to help build paper and pulp factories as much as lumber mills, creating the potential for a job boom in the hinterlands of the St Lawrence River.

-Hoping to out shine the Parti Canadien’s economic victory, President Nelson and the Blue Party push through the National Commerce Stimulus Act of 1852. Under the extensive bill, mining of gold and iron in the heartland of the country is heavily subsidized. Meanwhile a national stock exchange is opened in the capital of Quebec City, where state-run companies open up their stock to private investors.

-As the year draws to an end, hearing of the economic opportunities in Quebec attributing to the conservative Blue Party, many conservative-leaning Frenchmen arrive in Montreal to try to make their fortune in the country, including some notable men such as Henri, Count of Chambord. Irish immigration begins to stunt, however, as tensions with the United Kingdom over the Hudson Strait continue to grow.


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Commonwealth of Virginia - Joshuadium
President: Abraham Lincoln
Governing Party:
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Norfolk


-President Lincoln leads the debate over bounty hunting as the priority political topic of the new year. A long source of tension with the commonwealth’s neighbors as well as criticized for its lack of morality, even among some slave owners in Virginia, the government passes a largely bipartisan Fugitive Negro Act of 1852. Under the new law, bounty hunters must pay a hefty annual licensing fee along with a national registry. Increased border patrols are funded as well to catch any unlicensed bounty hunter travelling to Maryland or from the Carolina Confederacy. The hopes for the bill are to ease concerns of surrounding nations, make hunters accountable for property damage or kidnapping of freemen, and produce a bit of national revenue on the side.

-To also help fill the state treasury, a monthly lottery system is put in place open to all free men across the country. Tickets are sold through post offices while the government buys up advertisement space in newspapers to announce the winners, though often the local paper of a winner will often read his name in the headlines. All the meanwhile, the government takes 40% as taxation of the earnings, which constitute the total sum of tickets purchased for that month.

-A shelter system is across major cities of the commonwealth throughout the late spring. The facilities open their doors to any man or woman without property or a home, though with the condition that they seek employment and move on as soon as possible, though many find it difficult in finding ways of seeking such.

-The subsidies of the previous years for industry are renewed for 1852. With continued tax cuts for textile manufacturing and metalworks, Norfolk’s skyline soon becomes checkered with smokestacks by the summer. The industrial appropriations also boom the population of Louisville, reaching sizes estimated to rival cities east of Appalachia for the first time in the nation’s history.

-While the past several years have seen intense drilling and rehearsement by the Army of Virginia, all units move into the Appalachia this season to study mountain warfare. Exhausting uphill marches are drilled into the men to keep the practice of maintaining formation while artillery crews push through the frustration of different terrains to fire from while hitting a variety of ranges and elevations. The cavalry corps however faces the hardest drilling, with orders to maintain charging formation through different elevations and thick forests.

-Sailing in September, delegates are sent to Paris and London to propose better commerce treaties regarding textile goods and tobacco products. Paris welcomes an agreement fairly quickly, while weeks of deliberation are made in London over sources of material used, quality, and working conditions of those producing them. Despite the hardships endured in the United Kingdom, a treaty of sorts is worked out, but not as favorable as the French agreement.

-A brisk wind of October air blew across the city of Charlottesville during an annual slave auction in the city. The first day of the week-long affair attracts many buyers and goes as any other normal auction. However in the morning of the first day, musket fire awakes the general populace as negroes with broken chains on their arms and legs begin marching through the street, combatting with any white man that tries to apprehend them. Before the city militia can be called, the slaves had captured a quarter of the city and released many of their chained brethren from the auction stockades, broadening their numbers.

-Volley lines are formed on the streets throughout the city, but the militias are surprised by the discipline the negroes organize themselves to and many flee the advancing revolt. By the end of the week, the slave rebellion engulfs the entire city, causing almost the entire white populace to flee in terror. Quarter is not given by both sides as skirmishes continue into the surrounding countryside and the baffled militia commanders are aghast at the unusual number of muskets and rifles available to the negroes in revolt. The year ends with fluid borders between the Charlottesville Rebellion and the encircling militia who try to keep the slaves from breaking out until the army can arrive. Meanwhile, plantation owners across the nation begin keeping a tighter lock and key on their slaves to prevent any coordination or imitation. While an exact death count is unknown, there are hundreds of missing reported among the evacuees, fearing that they may be trapped in the city by the barbaric slaves.


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United Venezuelan States - Amfleet
President: General José Antonio Páez
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Caracas
Largest City: Caracas


-On a warm January day, General Páez stood in the town of Santa Rita, looking in the distance across the water of Lake Maracaibo to the Colombian city sharing its namesake. Knowing that victory was near, he decides that a final capture of a major city and its incorporation into Venezuela will force President Bolivar to surrender to their sovereignty. To put a swift and powerful end to Venezuela’s independence war, he collects his best commanders to form a dead cavalry unit to push up the from the city of Valera along the lake to Maracaibo.

-The army begins to march, with the new cavalry units - using both carbine and lance units - used as an advance vanguard. It is soon discovered that Colombian defenses in the valley are light, most likely due to troops redirected to defend Cali from the Ecuadorians. Despite the quick and easily winnable skirmishes with under-garrisoned posts, the cavalry vanguard mercilessly executes attacks as if it were a last stand, refusing to give quarter to any Colombian soldier. The unit quickly earns them the nickname Jinetes del Apocalipsis among both Colombians and Venezuelans.

-The reputation of the the Jinetes del Apocalipsis marching up the lake coast throughout March results in a third of Colombian troops in Maracaibo deserting, allowing an easy capture by the Venezuelans. With the capture of the major port city, General Páez sends another delegation to Bogota to sue for peace, forcing the border between the two countries at the Sierra de Perijá. After several weeks of waiting, it is announced that President Bolivar has conceded to recognize the United Venezuelan States as a separate, sovereign nation and Colombian troops will be removed from territories controlled by Caracas immediately.

-With the war over, General José Antonio Páez returns to Caracas to begin governing the country he has forged. To help the greater world recognize Venezuela as a new nation, his envoys reach northward to establish trade deals with the Kingdom of Louisiana and Republic of New York, both immediately recognizing their new American neighbor. Cheap exports of fruit and coffee beans are sent to New Orleans in return for several newly built steamships along with imports of cretonne. New cannons from New York foundries are shipped to Venezuela in exchange for leasement of a port. The government, under General Páez, decides on Scarborough on the island of Tobago would be adequate instead of anywhere on the mainland to avoid the appearance of ceding national territory immediately after winning independence.

-Throughout the late spring, New Yorker sailors in the various ports across the country pass time by playing a game new to South America called “baseball”. As the sailors smack a small ball with a board or thick stick, it begins to draw in crowds of locals and soon some join in.

-As the heat of June begins, the amount of farmland destroyed in the previous two years of war becomes apparent. Hoping to avoid economic collapse, Páez hires a number of cartographers, geologists, and chemists to scour the nation and account of its natural resources that can be exploited to move off of a completely agrarian economy. To aid in exploration, a number of railroad lines are ordered to be constructed throughout the country and by mid July, routes are cut through the jungle and forests, with the logs cut into planks to form ad hoc roads for immediate use until locomotives can travel through. The extensive project manages to provide a number of jobs for out-of-work farm peasants in the meantime.

-As the first steamships sail into Puerta la Cruz, one of them is quickly disassembled by Venezuelan engineers with the intention of reproducing the technology and physics of the engine for other uses. While the Louisianian sailors frown at the deconstruction of the fruits of their nation’s labors, they return to their kingdom glad that they had been well paid for the ship nonetheless.

-Late in the year, Páez’s collection of prospectors, geologists, cartographers, and chemists return to the capital to relay their reports. The cartographers determine Venezuela’s largest resource is lumber, but they are quickly dismissed as most nations in the Americas are rich in such resources. The geologists and chemists, however, find rich coal deposits in the Sierra de Perijá (bringing a smile to the General in deciding to liberate that region), while a number of deposits of asphaltum, iron and high amounts of gold are found throughout the country. Chemists also note crude oil seeping in some parts of the nation, noting that only a handful of years ago, a chemist in England had discovered the potential of distilling kerosene and paraffin wax from the material, though the process produces many useless byproducts such as gasoline that would need discarding into local rivers.


Turn 4 Due Sunday, February 24th 2019
 
CHAPTER IV: “Providing for the Common Defense”

FSA Turn 4.png



Turn Music - “The Yellow Rose of Texas”




World Events, Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty Three:


-Following the German migration to Chile, the port city of Puerto Montt is founded in the south.

-German immigrant Levi Strauss opens up a branch of his brothers’ NYC dry goods store in Sacramento, naming it Levi Strauss & Co Clothing Imports.

-The first passenger railway in India opens between Bombay to Thana at a length of 22 miles through the humid countryside.

-21 year old medical graduate James Hudson Taylor sets sail for China with the intention of evangelizing the populace into Protestant Christians.

-General José María Melo, dictator of Gran Colombia, launches a counterattack to Ecuador’s invading forces, resulting in a complete reverse of gains and an invasion of Colombia’s southern neighbor. With Colombian forces in the southwest encountering Peruvian armies for the first time, it does not take long before the two major powers to begin shooting one another over the devoured nation of Ecuador.

-Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captures Nanjing after slaughtering 30,000 Qing soldiers, then crosses the Yellow River marching northward.

-New Zealand gains self governance from the United Kingdom

-The hypodermic syringe is invented, hoping to allow easier inoculations against diseases in the future.

-French President Marquis Charles de La Valette claims “sovereign authority” over the Christians of the Holy Land in the Ottoman Empire, subverting the Russian Empire’s existing “sovereignty”. Through a series of diplomatic blunders, the Ottoman Empire soon declares war on the Russian Empire and their armies cross the Danube while holding strong ground in the Caucuses.

-Following the naval Battle of Sinope, resulting in the destruction of the Ottoman Black Sea fleet, France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland declare war on the Russian Empire near the end of the year.

-Upon hearing the news of his son’s execution by the Commonwealth of Virginia, John Brown quickly abandons his abolitionist work in the Ozarks and travels to Maryland while remaining quiet on his future plans.

-The Éire Naofa Movement gains momentum in Newfoundland as fresh protests erupt almost periodically in the capital of the British colony, calling on greater rights for Catholics in the nation and the Irish in general. Many of the wealthier English colonists begin to flee to other British possessions in the west for fear of violence in the future.

-Joint armies of Buenos Aires and Entre Rios make pushes into Argentine territory throughout June to August, though both nations are ill-supplied to force a decisive victory.

-The elderly Prime Minister of Mexico, Anastasio Bustamante, passes away at the age of 72. His death leaves Emperor Agustín II without his most trusted adviser and the government weakened until a replacement is appointed.

-During May, William Walker, a Georgian-born man who has wandered the American republics for several years initiates a rebellion in Baja California region of Mexico in order to form his own Anglo-American slave republic. The rebellion gains some traction among English speakers from the eastern American nations and capture a handful of major towns in the region, cutting off many parts of northern Mexico from the imperial government. The Mexican military is slow to react despite the rebels small numbers, as the Emperor neglects to appoint a new prime minister before the year is out due to internal political pressure from his opposition.

-Pedro V ascends the throne of Portugal as his mother, Queen Maria II, passes away. The new monarch hopes to bring modernizing reforms to the kingdom and upgrade the nation’s infrastructure.


Current Player Involved Conflicts:
Yucatec War: Republic of Yucatan vs. Georgian Republic (Since 1852)
Ohio River War: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania vs. Shawnee Confederacy + Cherokia
Californio War: California Insurgents + Republic of Alta + Republic of Rio Grande vs. Empire of Mexico


Other Conflicts in the Western Hemisphere:
Filibuster Revolt: White insurgents vs. Empire of Mexico
Ecuador-Peruvian War: Republic of Ecuador vs. Republic of Peru vs. Gran Colombia (Since 1851)
Rio de la Plata War: Argentina Confederacy vs. State of Bueno Aires + Republic of Entre Rios (Since 1852)
Chiapas Rebellion: Empire of Mexico vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Yucatec Rebellion: Republic of Yucatan vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Petén Rebellion: United States of Central America vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Cuban Rebellion: Kingdom of Spain vs. Cuban Rebels (Since 1852)

Conflicts Outside the Western Hemisphere:
Burmese-Siamese War: Burma vs. Siam (Since 1849)
Taiping Rebellion: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom vs. Qing Empire of China (Since 1850)
Various Regional Chinese Uprisings: Ethnic minority militias vs. Qing Empire of China (Since 1851)
Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire vs. Ottoman Empire + United Kingdom + Republic of France
Herzegovina Uprising: Serbian rebels vs. Ottoman Empire (Since 1852)



Alta Flag.png
Republic of Alta - Milke
President: Michael Quixano
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Sacramento


-Much of early 1853 in the Republic of Alta goes on normally and peacefully as the government continues its land organization in the north. With a large influx of settlers from the Ozark Federation to depart from French rule and maintain their rugged, pioneer lifestyle. These desires make the northern lands of Alta very appetizing to the Ozarkians and the old Oregon Trail that saw some use by Gold Rush opportunists is redeveloped. Throughout the year many from Ozark file claims with the Bureau of Land Management, though many reports of men or families bypassing the agency to just stake a claim is a common occurrence. While many Californios and Altans have peacefully coexisted with the natives in the land, promoting trade and understanding, the Ozarkians tend to be brash and aggressive toward their new neighbors.

-As shipments of machinery finally make their way to the Republic of Alta, steam engines become somewhat more available to the settlers. The government too takes an interest in the machines, with an eye for improving their naval capabilities. While many of the previous years were spent organizing and forming a proper army, President Quixano turns military policy to grow Alta’s reach from the shores. With fresh lumber and expensive heavy plating purchased, the spring sees the rapid construction of the AFS Don Quixote, equipped with the Republic’s best cannons available. Sailors are drawn from merchant vessels to man the large battleship, giving it a crew well experienced in oceanic travel though fairly green in war training.

-In May, news of a rebellion in Sonora and Baja California by white filibusters reaches Sacramento. President Quixano and his government sees this as a potential crux in securing Alta’s forever independence from the Empire of Mexico and a plan to go on the offensive, taking advantage of the Empire’s growing political problems is laid out. Emissaries are sent to Texas and the Republic of Rio Grande for a potential alliance against the Empire. Texas supports the war effort with supplies to Alta and a general truce of hostilities with Rio Grande, though does not formally declare war. The Republic of the Rio Grande, always having dreams of liberating Mexico from monarchy, quickly declares war on the Empire with a march toward the City of Victoria, however the Imperial Army’s mobilization stalls capture of the city before year’s end. England is sent invitations to join the fight in the name of liberating slavery, but their involvement with Russia draws their attention away from the western hemisphere.

-As the filibuster revolt in Senora manages to capture several towns critical to Mexican communication with its northern half for their own secessionist desires, the Republic of Alta embarks on a large recruitment drive of men and material. Almost door to door, men throughout the region of every race and creed are called to arms for the Republic, or at least donate excess arms and ammunition residents can give to the war effort.

-In the Mexican city of San Francisco, pro-Altan residents rise up against the light Mexican garrison. The imperial troops barricade themselves within their barracks and fortrify the neighborhood in which it resides and particularly against the north where the Altan regiments are expected to attack from. However, ships carrying the fresh recruits land south of the city and though the Mexicans are unaware of the inexperience of these men, the presence of enemy forces on all sides lead the Major in charge of defense of the city to surrender without firing a shot. Soon after, a combined Altan army marches south and captures San Jose in another bloodless assault.

-By midsummer, vast wilderness spanned from Altan occupied San Jose and the next Mexican controlled city of California - the regional capital of Los Angeles. To prevent steam from running out of their campaign and prevent the new recruits from deserting over the belief the conflict having already been won, a plan of rapid invasion is laid designed. Two weeks after the capture of San Jose, using a number of volunteer ships and government purchased vessels, the Republic of Alta sends an expedition to land troops on the Palos Verdes. Once landed, troops quickly embark on building fortifications on the hills overlooking the city while the fleet retreats to safe harbor in Catalina Island. The Mexican forces in Los Angeles, whom are more disciplined and in greater numbers, take notice of the fortifications but the commanding general delays an immediate attack due to lack of intelligence or orders from Mexico City. The procrastination to march on the Altan troops critically allows them to build rudimentary stone walls on the hills and time to position cannon strategically.

-Throughout the remainder of July and into the early weeks of August, the Republic of Alta begin a campaign of disruption as their scouts harass patrolling Mexican troops in the region while sabotaging supplies to the city. Vessels bringing orders to the Los Angeles garrison are captured by the Altan navy lying in wait outside the harbor, both bolstering Altan morale and discouraging the imperial troops. When feinting an attack on the north of the city, the Mexican garrison is ordered en masse from the fortifications within Los Angeles to destroy the republic’s forces once and for all.

-The Battle of Palos Verdes occurs on August 14th, between the larger forces of the disciplined Imperial Army of Mexico and the confident fortified regiments of the Republic of Alta. Battle cries of “Liberty over slavery!” and “Libertad no esclavitud!” are heard over the hills as the Mexicans take the strenuous march uphill against Altan fortifications. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the strategic fortifications, high confidence, and backs to the sea help drive the Mexican forces from taking the hills throughout the two days of battle before the Mexicans retreat back within the city.

-Though many dead imperial troops lie on the hills of Palos Verdes, their garrison remains somewhat strong, especially as it remains within Los Angeles’s fortifications. The Republic of Alta chooses to rearm, resupply, and fortify their entire war effort throughout the fall instead of pressing their luck further against Mexico. Within the occupied cities of San Francisco and San Jose, referendums are quickly established for the residents to decide on joining the Republic of Alta or remain with the Empire once peace is established. The tally of ballots results in the future Altan-Mexican border being much further south of San Francisco Bay than the start of 1853. The 400 Mexican soldiers captured in the cities are given amnesty to remain as private citizens or return to Mexico proper. Many of the enlisted choose to remain with Alta, but majority of the officers choose to return to Mexico, either out of loyalty or a desire to return home. In good faith, they are given horses and enough rations to make it southward.

-Near the end of the year, a few cargo ships full of Georgian made rifles make it to San Francisco Bay after the long journey around the Americas from the east. Though the arms could not participate in the conflict this year, their arrival gives fresh confidence to the president to continue the war into 1854.



Cherokee Flag.png
Cherokia - Sobotnik
First Beloved Man: Major Ridge
Governing Party: Modernists
Capital: Cutonuga
Largest City: Cutonuga


-While January snow falls throughout west of the Appalachian Mountains, John Ridge on behalf of his father’s leadership takes a lengthy stay within the Illinois Confederacy and the Shawnee Confederacy to discuss the economic future of all three Amerindian nations. While the northern nations are far behind economically, Cherokia views the flow of goods between the three as a critical necessity in preventing white expansion. As a result, a customs union is agreed to among the tribes in which Cherokia will provide arms and modernizing technology while allowing the free flow of goods from the north to potentially be exported by Cherokia ports. As part of the development, telegraph lines are established connecting to Prophetstown in the Shawnee. Plans to erect lines in the Illinois Confederacy are alsy made, though their deeply agrarian and traditional ways leave few areas worth connecting direct communications with.

-The government in Cutonuga take notice of John Ridge’s success in dealing with the tribes north of the Ohio on behalf of his aging father time after time and reward him with the creation of a diplomatic corps for Cherokia. The younger Ridge is named Chief of the corps and is given a broad mission to expand the culture of the Five Civilized Tribes around North America and as well as to European governments.

-An Amerindian nationalism slow forms itself into the society of Cherokia as modern technology becomes more prevalent throughout the country. To help this along, the government commissions a number of libraries in the cities, filling them with literature from all of the tribes in Cherokia. While the Cherokee are by far the most numerous tribe in the nation, the inclusion of the four other tribes’ traditions onto the limelight promotes a stronger unity. The Cherokee script, the first and most prominent Amerindian scripts, allows more tribes to take on Cherokee as a secondary language throughout Cherokia and in parts of the Illinois Confederacy, becoming a lingua franca of the Amerindian world.

-To help the growing beef industry flourish, importation of ice from the north becomes a critical resource for Cherokia. Majority of the frozen water is purchased by the railroad industry to keep beef fresh longer on its way to export, though a number of hospitals find use for iceboxes.

-By early May, an explosion of studying mathematics by the Cherokian army occurs. Generals lay out large tables and charts of artillery capabilities and mobilization speeds. While Cherokia has a smaller military man power than its neighbors, it is believed this handicap can easily be circumvented with mass planning. Hoping to have calculated such things accurately, the army offers the government the most minimum costs necessary to keep the troops supplied with the right amount of weaponry.

-To put these charts to the test, a general mobilization call is announced to time how quickly Cherokia can muster its strength. Midweek through the test however, news reaches Cutonuga of a rapid Pennsylvanian invasion of the Shawnee Confederacy. While the generals praise the Cherokee army’s ability to reach the Ohio River by train very rapidly, expansion of railroads into Cherokia’s Amerindian allies have yet to be built, forcing the army to take the long march through the wilderness to Prophetstown.

-Though the invasion of Cherokia’s ally takes the most time for the government, John Ridge travels to Panama to help in a joint commercial expedition with the Georgian Republic. With concerted diplomacy by John Ridge and the Georgians, a deal is struck in the Panama province of Gran Colombia. A small contingent of Cherokian soldiers and a fair amount of laborers are brought to the province to begin work on what is hoped to be a very lucrative railroad. The diplomatic corps begins an advertising campaign to attract more laborers from around the world and by the end of the year, a number of Irish, Chinese, and some German laborers travel to the region for employment. Despite the possible economic success of the project, some fear that General Jose Melo may turn his eye to Panama in anger once his war with Ecuador and Peru is over for circumventing his authority.

-Once the army arrives at the Shawnee capital, General Junaluska finds their government and warriors in disarray. The Pennsylvanian army had managed to circumvent their land fortifications by landing men and supplies from the Ohio River and marching behind, cutting off much of the Shawnee’s warriors from its council of chiefs. To hurt the Shawnee further, Pennsylvanian cavalry units harass couriers at every chance and the Shawnee lack proper cannon to counter their foe’s own artillery.

-General Junaluska quickly assumes command of all Amerindian forces in the country with only some small opposition of the more traditional Shawnee chiefs. Understanding that the Pennsylvanians have a shorter supply route home and are overall more disciplined than the Shawnee, the Cherokee warchief chooses to sacrifice time in order to train the remaining Shawnee warriors into better soldiers. While the invading armies manage to nearly cut the Confederacy in half by the fall, the rudimentary training given to the Shawnee combined with fresh Cherokee reserves manage to prevent the Pennsylvanians from driving northward to the Shawnee-Canadian border or from swinging westward toward the capital. As snow falls in October, both sides begin to settle down for the winter and fortify the ground they hold.

-In December, the 82 year old First Beloved Man of the Cherokee - Major Ridge, becomes seriously ill and bedridden in the capital. Many mourn what appears to be his soon death, though many of the chiefs of the Five Tribes begin the political campaigns of finding a replacement when he expires, with some of the tribes hoping to place their own as head of the nation instead of the dominating Cherokee while others divide along Modernist-Traditionalist lines. Despite expectations, Major Ridge manages to survive into the new year, but for how long is expected to last only weeks if not days.


Flag of Georgia.png
The Georgian Republic - Ruski
President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Governing Party:
Capital: Savannah
Largest City: Atlanta


-Anxiety from foreign affairs and alleged blame of terrorism plague President Stephen’s government throughout much of 1853. Rumors of Georgian involvement in the Albany Bombing are angrily rejected by the national legislature while fear of the slave rebellion in Virginia worries others. From this, a new focus on homeland defenses are drawn. Men from the Yucatan campaign are brought home while General Longstreet is ordered to fortify the holdings in Panabá while giving four brigs off the coast to aid in defenses. Much of the Georgian navy is ordered to homeport, but shipping of slaves from Yucatan becomes difficult with the Louisiana navy boarding may private vessels to liberate the Negroes. The Georgian navy is partially divided to protect the nation’s Caribbean commerce while the rest go to Georgia to protect the homeland. To assist the navy, a number of private fishing ships are commissioned and paid to keep watch of foreign ships nearing Georgian shores to act as an early warning system for an imminent invasion.

-With majority of the Georgian forces withdrawn from Gulf, they are quickly ordered to occupy old coastal forts along the Atlantic. While many of the forts are in disrepair or crumbling from the early days of independence, the soldiers spend much of the spring rebuilding and modernizing them. Rusted cannon abandoned decades ago are replaced with fresh artillery to defend the homeland from an invasion from the sea.

-In May, the Georgian government decides to secure their land borders. The Republic of West Florida is feared to be a weak underbelly to nation and with permission, more Georgian troops are sent to that country to reinforce the smaller army of Florida. To get men for this expedition, troops from outposts along the Cherokia border are ordered southward, with President Stephens trusting the Indians to keep their non-aggression agreement intact. With war between the Shawnee and Pennsylvania erupting, the government assumes Cherokia will be too occupied with war in the north to worry about breaking peace treaties. As a follow up, a plea is sent to the Carolina Confederacy in regard to northern republic’s aggression against the slave-owning south. Easily, President Pickens offers aid to Georgia should it ever be invaded by any northern country in the near future.

-As the year goes into summer, it becomes more and more apparent Georgia will not be invaded. As worries relax to a degree, commerce begins to grow once again. A few ships of Georgian rifles are sent out to the Republic of Alta, though the long trek around South America prevents the weapons from reaching the west coast to play any part in the year’s campaigning.

-To circumvent the long voyage to the west, the Georgian government in coordination with Cherokia embark on a financial expedition in Panama. Using its direct relations with the Gran Colombian province, an offer of building a railroad from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean is given and accepted. The province of Panama is given 10% of potential earnings while the National Bank of Georgia provides massive funding for the project, putting a large share of the Georgian economy into the investment.

-As soon as the deal is reached, Cherokee ships arrive full of both soldiers and laborers, and begin to fortify the Caribbean coast while preparation of construction by Georgian engineers are made through the end of the hot summer and fall. General Jose Melo seems to take no notice of foreigners landing soldiers into his northern territory as Gran Colombia attempts to wrap up its war with Ecuador and Peru. Though once that conflict is over, the disrespect of sidestepping his national government for the project may lead to conflict in the Caribbean.


Flag of Louisiana.png
Kingdom of Louisiana - Pez
Monarch: Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte I
Governing Party: Parti Régimist
Capital: New Orleans
Largest City: New Orleans


-Apprehensive of the Georgian Republic’s belligerence in the Caribbean, New Orleans orders a portion of the royal fleet to the Yucatan to shadow and harass the Georgian navy, but with strict orders to not cause a direct war. Private Georgian vessels in the region are often boarded for “commercial inspections”, causing stalls in goods shipped to and from Georgia in the region. At times, kidnapped Negroes from the Yucatan are discovered and the Louisiana navy declares their “cargo impounded” and take the kidnapped men and women to the safe harbors of Haiti until conflict in their homeland allows a secure return home. By the summer, cargo ships are often escorted throughout the Caribbean by the Georgian navy, preventing further boarding lest a war be sparked.

-Following the news of the Albany Bombing and numerous conflicts in the Empire of Mexico, a soft mobilization order is given to the army. Reserve troops are ordered to reinforce fortifications along the Mississippi River as well as Sabine River on the Texas frontier. Remaining forces are ordered northward into the collapsing Ozark Federation where troops are ordered to maintain peace and order. To prevent a panicked perception in the Ozarks of a military invasion, royal troops soldiers are encamped outside of major cities and towns to keep a low, but enforceable profile.

-A cavalry detachment in February is sent to Fort Smith on the frontier. Once arrived, a ceremony is held in which the Ozark flag is drawn down and the Kingdom of Louisiana flag is hoisted in its place. Following the symbolic gesture of Louisianian control, orders are given to apprehend now former president John Fremont. The Ozark soldiers report that they had searched the surrounding region for Fremont but his capture has eluded them, though the French commander suspects hints of loyalty or sympathy to their former leader may have allowed him to escape into the unknown.

-With the Ozark Federation more or less under the flag of Louisiana, King Napoléon travels into the territory with several regiments of soldiers in full military dress. He tours the cities and largest towns throughout April and May asserting his royal authority but to address fears of his kingdom’s annexation of their homes. Through his many speeches, he publicly calls for peace and security under the Kingdom’s banner from frontier plains indians, potential Mormon incursions in the north and general lawlessness. Many of the visits draw a large crowd and applause, though it is suspected more came to spectate a king travelling around rather than to be comforted with his words. This is most indicated when the French-speaking King, expecting applause at certain points in his speeches is met with silence from the predominantly English-speaking crowds.

-In May, an outbreak of Yellow Fever scourges the capital city of New Orleans rapidly. Sick and dying dot the streets as commerce through the city slows and many government officials break for their manors outside to prevent infection. The six month pregnant Queen is evacuated from the city while her husband continues his tour of the Ozarks. Several weeks later, the disease breaks out in St Louis, suspected to have been carried over by soldiers infected in New Orleans and then stationed in the north. But the beginning of the summer, the disease mostly burns itself out, but not after claiming the lives of just under 10,000 throughout the Kingdom.

-With the capital still recovering, King Napoléon decides to spend the summer months touring internationally in regard to announce the soon growth of his royal line as well as lobby other states to condemn the unprovoked aggression of the Georgian Republic. Arriving first in the Mexico, he meets with Emperor Agustín II to find a common ground on intervening in the Yucatan, but finds the Emperor unsympathetic following numerous rebellions and war in Mexico as well as severe political problems plaguing his government. The trip to Haiti to meet with Emperor Faustin-Élie Soulouque proves more fruitful as an empire built by former slaves find Georgia’s actions concerning and promise to take in any negro refugees from the conflict. King Napoléon ends his international tour in the United Kingdom, where he finds a great deal of sympathy over Georgia’s actions and promises of intervention, though growing tensions with Russia overshadow England’s foreign policies over the Americas.

-Any failures on his international tours are quickly eclipsed by the Queen going into labor days after King Napoléon’s return home. After several hours of labor, papers joyously announce throughout the kingdom the birth of César-Louis Napoléon on August 3rd, 1853.

-Throughout August and the fall, the King takes some time away from politics to spend with his wife and newborn son, though in keeping communication with his government an open invitation by engineers throughout the Kingdom and around the world is given. The challenge of expanding the usefulness of Louisiana’s coastline from swamp to serviceable shores, both for commerce and naval security is asked. A sizable financial reward is to be given to any that successfully demonstrate how to easily develop the land and many engineers apply potential solutions but none by the end of the year provide what the government sees as a feasible or frugal answer yet.

-By year end, French control of the Ozark Federation grows slowly but steady with definition. With this knowledge clear to all, a number of the more rugged and mountain-men residents of the Ozark Federation begin an exodus westward in search of lands less civilized and more wild. Trails are made to the Republic of Alta where land is cheap and plentiful, though the common routes go through native controlled lands, leading to many attacks by plains indians on the incursion of their territory by white men.


NewYorkflag.png
Republic of New York - Native Hunter
President: Stephan Van Rensselaer IV
Governing Party: Beaver Party
Capital: Albany
Largest City: New York City


-Despite the cold, snow, and winter elements, reconstruction of the capitol is pushed on throughout the early months of 1853. Several thousand bricks are brought to the construction site from Pennsylvania as a token gesture of solidarity against those responsible for the November bombing. Though only a third of the building is damaged, engineers determine that it is safer to tear the whole structure down and start anew rather than attempt repairs. With this in mind, an invitation across the country of architects to design a new capitol to represent the strength of New York is sent out. The government settles on a neo-gothic design with large spires to dominate the Albany landscape.

-On January 20th, Vice President Vanderbilt finally awakes but to the horror of having been made a cripple. Though he returns to his civil duties before the spring, many rumors of potential resignation and retirement flurry out of the newspapers throughout the year, perhaps to focus more on his railroad business.

-Over the course of the year, newspapers gain wind of some arrests of Irish immigrants potentially related to the Albany Bombing. Playing on the fears of the people, sensationalist headlines from Irish banditry to conspiracies of London behind the attacks fuel a growing anti-Irish sentiment throughout New York despite the insistence by police that there is no defined connection. Many businesses begin hanging signs “Irish Need Not Apply” while protests over their entry into the country begin in New York City undeterred by official reports. In late September, a protest turns into a small riot, resulting in two Irishmen killed while the crowd shouts, “Go home redcoats”.

-Debate in government for the duration of the year is made in regard to the culprits of the capitol blast. Many Beaver Party and Manorial Party senators along with President Rensselaer push the blame on the Georgian Republic, citing fears of a naval arms race between the two American republics. A small opposition, composed of the Labor Party and New Whigs however places blame on the British with clear motivation to subvert New York’s growing overseas territories. The opposition group often push a consideration that, while New York and the United Kingdom have worked well in the past, it is becoming obvious that global competition is driving them apart and the past year’s attack was a preemptive strike by London.

-While the New York Senate debate over blame for the attack, the concern over the immense institution of slavery in the Ashanti Empire becomes a significant second priority of the government. Viewed as a threat to the African fortifications, the army is given a general mobilization order in June with plans of a transatlantic voyage pushed for next year. To help with the eventual invasion, the African naval squadron are ordered back to port in New York City, as well as to service them to general upkeep. A number of the vessels are outfitted with iron plating similar to other navies of the Americas. An order to expand the navy is made as well of large ships-of-the-line, designed to be iron-plated as well, but the ships will not be finished until toward the end of 1854.

-General fortifications are built along the coastline of the country throughout the summer. From the tip of Long Island to Long Branch, star forts are established to prevent any invasion from sea while a handful of smaller blockhouses are established for a nominal defense along the St. Lawrence River.

-A recruitment drive to inflate the power of the New York Army is developed throughout the year. Posters written in English, Dutch, and Gaelic are hung in major cities advertising many new benefits for enlistment. Green soldiers are promised a chance to be invited to universities after service, tax breaks on land purchased, and for immigrants a streamlined service to legitimate citizenship. Though with the anti-Irish sentiment running through the country at the moment, few immigrants take up the citizenship offer.

-While much of the government’s focus is spent on internal repairs and domestic policies, some time is spent to allot funds to the new overseas island possessions. Hoping to use them as both trade ports and to extend the reach of Albany’s foreign policies, naval ports are constructed on the Nicobar Islands and Mafia Island to service a sizable fleet should New York decide to send them.

-Near the end of the year, a diplomatic emissary departs from the Nicobar Islands, sent to Peking to establish relations with the Qing Emperor. The New Yorkers are welcomed in the court though much of their time is spent idly mingling with the French, Russian, and English ambassadors as the Empire’s government focuses on its civil war.


Pennsylvania Flag.png
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Gnomical
President: Henry P. Williamson
Governing Party: Freedom Party
Capital: Philadelphia
Largest City: Pittsburgh


-Appalled by the sudden attack on the New York capitol late last year, the Pennsylvania government set aside a small amount of funds to purchase several thousand bricks and ship them to Albany. Though the bricks may not even be used for the actual reconstruction of the capitol, the gesture is greatly welcomed by President Rensselaer as a warm symbol of the two countries rapport and solidarity.

-In late January, national elections are held between Freedom Party ticket Henry P. Williamson and Steadfast Party ticket George Shultzty. After the final votes are tallied and sent from the Ohio valley, it is revealed that Henry P. Williamson with his VP choice William Bigler has won the vote, though by a much smaller margin than his predecessor. The closeness of the vote reveals to the Freedom Party that their policies, while still popular, may be losing ground and the new administration taking office the following month must spend some time considering its political strategies.

-With political tensions on the rise, between the negro rebellion in the south and the Albany bombing in the north, Philadelphia decides to put the Commonwealth Navy on alert, with drills along the North American coastline. The drills bring some of the fleet so far south as to become off the coast of the Georgian Republic, where Georgian Navy ships intercept. Though no shots are exchanged by either side, flag communication persuade the Pennsylvanian seamen that they are not welcomed in those southern waters and soon return to Cape May.

-As spring arrives, President Williamson pushes the National Assembly to declare war on the Shawnee Confederacy for numerous infringements on trade, criminality and general barbarity along the Pennsylvanian-Indian border and treatment of settlers in the Ohio region. Soon after, the army launches barges full of men, horses, and artillery down the Ohio River until they are under what papers would later call “a soft underbelly” and make a secure beach landing.

-The river landing site is given basic fortifications and garrisoned with troops to keep Amerindians from pushing them into the water as well as to repel any counterattack by Cherokia from downriver. From there, the army marches northward well behind the Shawnee fortifications along the Pennsylvania border. Many of the Shawnee warriors are cut off from communication with their capital and chiefs and confusion ensues, allowing a number of Pennsylvania victories throughout the late spring and early summer.

-Many of the fortifications from the Ohio River halfway to Lake Erie are easily captured as Pennsylvania cavalry cut off Shawnee couriers and supplies while the infantry catch up to later siege the blockhouses. With much of the border secured, supplies from Columbus and Pittsburgh easily reinforce the invasion forces with food, ammunition, and fresh troops.

-By the fall, the invasion begins to lose momentum as the Shawnee, with vanguards of Cherokee troops, manage to organize themselves into a strong defensive force. Despite this, the Pennsylvania troops remain well-supplied and before the winter snows prevent either side from marching, have managed to split the Shawnee Confederacy nearly in half.

-The public throughout the year is fed news of the war effort daily. Public statements by the new president paint the conflict as a war of liberation, as the Shawnee - known to many in Ohio - are savages and - to the distaste to many in the east - engage in the institution of slavery. The Pittsburgh Gazette particularly produces many articles on the values of Pennsylvania spreading westward liberating those in bondage, both literally and by curbing their blasphemous culture, encouraging support for the war.


Flag of Quebec.png
Republic of Quebec - Heyitsjiwon
President: Wolfred Nelson
Governing Party: Blue Party
Capital: Quebec City
Largest City: Montreal


-A ship flying the Union Jack sails up the St. Lawrence and delivered a delegation from London to Quebec City in the late winter. President Nelson welcomed the Englishmen and over the course of several weeks discussed the concerns over Québécois tariffs impeding the fur trade through the Hudson Strait. By the end of February, a peaceable agreement is made wherein Quebec will cease pursuit of its waterway tolls in exchange for a joint effort to build the largest rail line in North America, from Saint Lewis in Labrador, through Quebec along the St Lawrence, all the way along the Hudson Bay to the HBC administrative capital of York Factory. Though the cost will be jointly split between the Company, the Crown, and the Québécois, the Englishmen still feel shorted in the deal as Labrador is vastly underpopulated or developed, requiring them to put in extra effort for construction than the others.

-In March, an envoy is sent to discuss potentially linking railroads from the Commonwealth of New England, Arcadia, and New York to the greater line through Quebec. All three agree, though the Republic of Acradia’s growing political problems prevent them from contributing much throughout the year. Despite this, engineers plan out several routes to be planned from the east all centered around Montreal. As the winter snow begins to melt in early May, construction is immediately set forth.

-Though Quebec’s foreign affairs normally are reserved for its immediate borders, the government watches the events south of the republic with apprehension. As the Anglo-American republics begin dressing their vessels in iron plating, the Québécois navy soon follows. As the Navy of Quebec expands, particularly with steamships, President Nelson exercise its strength by ordering it to the southern hemisphere. Once in the southernmost regions of South America, a naval post is constructed along the Strait of Magellan. The officers there dub the settlement Par la Suite as a small joke that they are on the edge of the world, so far from home.

-Par La Suite acts firstly as a naval port to Québécois ships that may round the tip of the continent, but also as a trade post to the many vessels making their way through the southern passage. Contact is made with the Yaghan People who live in the region and friendly relations are established, though the Québécois believe the natives may be behind the theft of several basic tools and a row boat over the course of the year.

-With such a long voyage between the poles, the government quickly realizes that a halfway station is needed to service the navy. Count Henri, finding his way to Quebec City in search of his fortune, finds an opportunity by acting as the representative of Quebec to the Danes in aid of the Republic’s naval issue. As a result, the Kingdom of Denmark and Republic of Quebec work out a financial deal to purchase the Danish West Indy nations of St John, St Croix, and St Thomas in the Caribbean. Immediately the deteriorating ports on the island begin refurbishment, while Count Henri returns to Quebec with much praise among politicians and the wealthy of Quebec.

-With the conservatives controlling the government, the Séminaire de Québec is accorded a charter to from a college named Université Laval. As ground is broken in June, the papers in Quebec City praise the government on permitting the construction of the largest French university in North America.

-As the industrial size of Montreal grows, a gunsmithing factory is established by invitation of President Nelson to the Smith & Wesson Company from the Commonwealth of New England. In return for state investment in their company, the factory is built on Québécois while the Army of Quebec is allowed discounted arms and listed as a priority customer in the foreseeable future.


Flag of Virginia.png
Commonwealth of Virginia - Joshuadium
President: Abraham Lincoln
Governing Party: Whig Party
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Norfolk


-While local militias and cold weather cage the slave rebellion of Charlottesville within the confines of the city limits, the army begins to collect from its Appalachian drills at Harper’s Ferry Armory under the command of 46 year old Colonel Robert E. Lee. By the first of February, the army had mobilized fully and marched south to the overrun city and relieved the militias. Over the course of the week, three thousand soldiers created a wall of military encampments around the city with cavalry and artillery on standby for aid.

-Initially, calls for the rebel property within to stand down and surrender were replied with musket fire. A Major Jackson, leading one of the calls into one section of the city was noted by journalists to have he nor his horse flinch as minie balls flew within feet of them as he finished his ordered call to surrender while his men took cover. Many of the papers soon reported the story of “Major Stonewall” and became a hero of the siege with it.

-By the second week of February, it became apparent that those in rebellion would not give up peacefully nor easily. Marching drums answered the musket fire from slaves as Virginia’s finest infantry marched into the residential region of the city while cannon fire consumed the warehouse district to prevent the stone buildings from becoming castles of insurgency. Outnumbered two to one and lacking any military training, discipline, or courage, sections of the city fell within a day as the slaves retreated to the inner core of the town with zero quarter given on each side. On day two of the battle, majority of those refusing capitulation held up in the stone-built churches. Aiming to lessen the casualties of the soldiers, fire bombs were tossed on the buildings burning all within alive and the city was put under martial law for the next four months.

-Numerous slaves captured throughout the Battle of Charlottesville were incarcerated in large metal cages experiencing the harshness of winter day and night as fires throughout the city were put out by returning white citizens and the dead were tallied - 46 soldiers dead, 107 white citizens murdered, 397 Negroes shot. Over the course of the year, the hundreds of captured Negroes were ordered by the government to be put to sale in the Carolina Confederacy, Georgia, Confederacy of the Equator, and the Empire of Brazil to completely rid the Commonwealth of rebellious infection.

-Seven white men were discovered at the core of the rebellion, aiding the Negroes in resisting the lawful Army. Four were killed in near the end of the battle while the remaining three were captured to reveal the ringleader of the rebellion as 29 year old Owen Brown, son of the infamous John Brown, along with Owen’s close abolitionist associates. The three men were caged along with the Negroes to endure the elements until trial, though it was revealed Owen had sustained two shots - one in the shoulder and another in his left leg. As the wounds turned gangrene, his nearing death became apparently and a speedy trial was held. All three men refused answers in court to offer any details of how such a large number of muskets were shipped into the city and by what greater institute that had aid them and as Brown’s condition deteriorated to the point where death was a mere few hours away, all three were sent to the gallows. Though Owen was born and raised in the Commonwealth of New England, he had wandered North America from republic to republic with his father, no doubt assuming many political ties to abolitionists in every nation visited, leaving his nameless backers a mystery.

-President Lincoln traveled to the city in early April to preside over a memorial service for the 153 who perished in the battle. His speech, though surprisingly short, became published in papers from Norfolk to Louisville as a rally of the nation to unite under this trying time in Virginia. Though famous for being the first non-slave owning president of the country, Lincoln’s actions and words throughout the whole ordeal greatly boosted his popularity among his Democratic-Republicans Party as well as the conservative Whig opposition as someone who would defend the white citizens of Virginia always.

-Throughout the summer, bounty hunters registered with the government scour the nation for potential rebellious slaves that may have fled the city during its occupation or the battle. With them and the increased border patrols by the Army, a few score of Negroes are caught attempting to make their way into Maryland or Pennsylvania.

-While homes are rebuilt throughout the summer in Charlottesville, the government’s shelter system is put into full use by the city. While the wealthy gentry of the city simply move to their rural homes or can afford to relocate to Richmond and other cities, the shelters cater greatly to the many poor whites of the region to the point where the army’s quartermasters are called to aid in dispersing food and clothing while temporary shelters made of unfinished logs are constructed for excessive citizens. Attributing their lives saved by the President and followed up with the log shelters, they are quickly dubbed “Lincoln’s Cabins”.

-Though the rebellion is scene as a catastrophe at its worse or a symptom of a institute in dire need of reform at its best, it quickly becomes the central political debate as President Lincoln begins to campaign for his reelection next year. The lower house General Assembly seems poised to be taken over by the president’s Democratic-Republicans while the upper House of Burgesses seems for the first time in Virginian history to lose its conservative Whig domination. Burgess Whig leader Jefferson F. Davis announces his candidacy to replace Lincoln, who passively blames for the rebellion in the first place but must contend with the president’s ever growing popularity.


Venezuelan Flag.png
United Venezuelan States - Amfleet
President: General José Antonio Páez
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Caracas
Largest City: Caracas


-Much of the winter in Venezuela is spent by the interim government on reconstruction as well as organizing the new nation. A Dictadura de Transición Nacional is declared with General Páez as its natural executive. Delegations elected by local municipalities are sent state by state to Caracas where Páez calls on them to discuss, debate, and fabricate a worthy constitution for the United Venezuelan States to govern itself with. The general orders the convention of delegates to finish their discourse by the beginning of 1856, providing them three long years to work.

-Throughout the spring, subsidies and tax breaks for reconstruction create a boon in the brick industry. The region around the Rio Orinoco quickly becomes the center of the industry as clay pits are dug along the river basin while towns in the region become homes to large kilns. So many bricks are cast that an excessive supply is made, opening them to general purchase for new construction across the country along with rebuilding damaged buildings from the war.

-As part of the interim government, General Páez creates the Ministry of Natural Resources to govern the exploitation of the Venezuela’s potential ores, oil, and physical wealth. The ministry quickly asserts its domain over many of the potential mining zones and ore-rich mountains around the country. With deeds retained, the government uses its funds to clear vegetation and construct facilities for mining around the Sierra de Perijá and in the south. After basic trails and buildings are made, the sites are auctioned off to private contractors, businessmen, and companies at the highest bidder with requirements and some quotas to be hit within certain time frames else they risk repossession by the ministry.

-The city of Maturín over the summer becomes the home of many small oil exploiting enterprises. Large brick distillery sites are erected based off English designs to process crude oil into kerosene. Much of the byproducts are dumped into the local rivers so to prevent risk of explosion or fires. Much of the oil comes from wells relatively shallow in the ground, though transportation of the material to the city’s growing industrial section and its finished products to the rest of the country is severely limited by thick vegetation. Railroad construction continues throughout the country, but with thick trees, disease-ridden construction crews, and muddy grounds makes the hope of an extensive network like those in North America a far dream to reach.

-Ships purchased from the Kingdom of Louisiana, along with those used in the revolution are nationalized into the Venezuelan National Armada as the country’s formal navy. An admiralty is formed from Venezuelans retired from Colombian service and its first mission is directed at Cuba. Having sympathized with the revolutionaries of Cuba against a tyrannical government, General Páez orders a shipment of muskets to the Caribbean island without fear of any reprisal from Spain. They are received in Santa Cruz del Sur with much appreciation. Though the Cubans lack much organization and military discipline, their growing armory promises that they will be a going concern for the Spanish well into the future.

-Weary of the coup against President Bolivar last year and General Melo’s desire to continue its war with Ecuador has put many Venezuelans under stress that war with their western neighbor may soon start again. To soothe the border’s anxiety, a number of fortifications are built and garrisoned along the Sierra de Perijá to the border with the Empire of Brazil. The infamous Jinetes del Apocalipsis are stationed at key crossroads between the countries, ready to defend Venezuela once more should this new leader of Gran Colombia turn his eyes on them after Ecuador.


NEXT TURN DUE: SUNDAY MARCH 17th, 2019
 
Battle of Savannah
March 2nd, 1854

Ital_fleet_ancona-After_battle_at_vissa(1866).jpg
Georgian Atlantic Fleet departs to engage the Allied blockade

Deciding to endure no longer the suffocation of Pennsylvania and New York blockading the critical port and capital city of Savannah, the Georgian Atlantic Fleet considers the winds and seas of March 2nd to be favorable to their sails and depart from the safety of coastal batteries to embrace their enemy with steel and blood. Much like the Allies, the Georgian fleet is a patchwork of ironclads, iron-hulled, and traditional sailing warships as it enters into the open ocean. The New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians quickly raise flags to rally one another, seeing that those exiting Savannah have come to fight rather than run their gauntlet. From the shore, many of the citizens of Savannah, including President Stephens, watch with both excitement and fear, though little can be seen from their vantage point even with a spyglass.

The first shots are fired from the Allied navies as they begin an attempt to cross the T of the nearing Georgian fleet, but with winds favorable to their enemy, fail in time. With several veteran English sailors aboard the Georgian vessels, their officers quickly broke the fleet into two lines, one sailing to the southern tip of the Allied flotilla and the other to the northern. When both fleets fell upon each other's firing range, the thunder of broadsides became loud enough for the entire city to hear clearly. With an admiral leading the Pennsylvanians and another leading the New Yorkers, the first hour of cannon fire favored the Georgian fleet as it takes notice over the lack of cohesion and unified plan of defense. Three New Yorker sloops are disabled immediately, taking the hardest pounding from the heavy cannon of Georgian ironclads while a Pennsylvanian sloop is sunk after being rammed on the broadside by the iron vessels, its small cannon fire bouncing off the metal shell with futile pings.

As the battle progressed into its second and third hour, all three fleets began to gravitate into an unusual orbit. Without beholden to the wind, the steam powered ironclads of both fleets begin to encircle the wooden vessels with less maneuverability. It is here that the Allied Fleet begins to turn the tables on the Georgian Republic. New York heavy cannons on their battleships NYS Schulyer and NYS John Paul Jones manage to puncture the wooden hulls of the less protected Georgian vessels at an easier pace, while the Pennsylvanian frigates cut off escape. Though the Georgian navy's wooden flotilla is minor to their ironclads, the destruction of much of the vessels demoralizes the crews observing from their metal carapaces. The Georgian ironclads then break from engaging the enemy ironclads to save their less fortunate vessels from destruction. What can only be described as a symphony of pings echoes throughout the air as the Allies pelt the ironclads with cannon. All but one of the Georgian vessels breaks through unharmed, with the unlucky GRS Kingston suffering an unlucky hit to their smokestack, forcing the crew to scuttle less suffocate to death from the smoke.

Though much of the Georgian ironclads remained undamaged, their smaller size and thus smaller munition supply, combined with the destruction of the wooden vessels of the fleet force the Georgian navy back to the safety of Savannah's ports. Though easier to damage and sustaining heavy casualties, the Allie's fleet of larger and more numerous vessels celebrates a well fought victory and proceed to continue the blockade of the Georgian Republic. Many of the allied ships that sustained too much damage to continue fighting but were deemed salvageable, are filled with wounded sailors of both nations and sail for the Pennsylvanian naval port in Cape May. Journalists in most countries of the world write vigorously on the battle, noting it to be the first open-sea combat with ironclads.
 
Batalla de Villa Maria
April 15th, 1854
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Painting of General Juan Manuel del Rosas proclaiming victory over the Argentina Confederacy
With the Rio de la Plata War entering its third year, General Rosas, president of the State of Buenos Aires, embarks on a planned invasion directly into the Argentina Confederacy to end the conflict in a bloody finale. With some coordination with Republic of Entre Rios troops marching a short distance on the northern flank of Rosas army of 3,000 men, the allies cross into Argentina from the south. Moving without any clear intention of haste and lazily keeping pace with baggage trains, the armies make a clear march toward the Argentina capital of Córdoba. Camping often to relax the troops, sometimes for an entire day, Argentine scouts make easy note of the movements of Rosas soldiers in their territory, shadowing them often and reporting back excellent details of their locations and direction. The scouts take easy indication of Rosas' forces being made almost entirely of infantry and slow moving artillery, making evident the causes of the slow invasion.

The Argentine army mobilizes with high morale in knowing the obvious strategy of their enemy and plan a defense outside the town of Villa Maria, some hundred miles southeast of their capital and in the direct path of Rosas sluggish forces. Light artillery placements are made while Argentine soldiers assemble into their line formations on April 15th while Rosas' army and the Entre Rios troops near and assemble their ranks. A repertoire of cannon fire announces the engagement between the three forces, with the Argentine troops on equal number with the combined forces of their foes. Musket volleys soon become a common noise as both sides begin moving their formations to probe weaknesses.


Some thirty odd minutes into the fray, cavalry trumpets join the clamor on the southern flank of the Argentine army. Some confusion startles the officers of the Confederacy's forces until a horrific revelation becomes clear - the bluster and ruckus of Rosas' leisurely invasion overtook the full attention of military scouts, shielding them from Buenos Aires' cavalry forces marching discretely south of the main forces. Calls for squares to be formed and orders of right face are made, but too late as the cavalry wrecks into the Argentine flanks. Panic en mass follows and a number of infantry lines break rank to flee. With this surprise disturbing Argentine confidence, new vigor from the Buenos Aires infantry reveals itself and pressures the rest of their enemy to route.

Argentine forces soon are rolled back, with Buenos Aires forces aggressively pursuing. Musket volleys are thrown toward even Argentine lines in obvious retreat while Buenos Aires cavalry begins a violent hunt for fleeing soldiers, giving no quarter. Enlisted men are cut down without hesitation as they flee the field of battle in all direction, with only some exception given to surrendering officers, with a higher rank guaranteeing more survival of the onslaught. Morale devastated even more so than their forces, the Argentine army half disperses as it retreats from Villa Maria with numerous desertions.

Argentine army in disarray and destroyed, General Rosas's confident forces now have a clear and unhindered path to Córdoba.
 
Battle of Unegvadisi
January 31st - February 1st
560098

Painting of the various Chickasaw militias, white residents, and formal Cherokia Army defending the city of Unegvadisi
After days of heavy forced marches through snow and hilly terrain, the exhausted but numerous infantry and cannon units of General "Stonewall" Jackson eventually catch up with the vast units of JEB Stuart's cavalry that had reached the city several days prior. Though Stuart's men had managed a modest limitation of supplies reaching the Cherokia city on the banks of the Mississippi, his forces were not large enough to prevent the residents and locals of the surrounding area to help the garrison of Cherokian Army from saturating the defenses as best they can. Though rapid invasion to reach and besiege the city was made due to political pressure regarding presumptive international treaties, General Jackson remained disappointed that his forces had not arrived soon enough to catch the city entirely by surprise, seeing that the cannon that normally guard the banks of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers successfully moved inland to defend against the Virginians.

Despite this, confidence by numbers alone push the Virginians to engage the indians. The first day of battle was marred by an argument of cannon fire. Cherokia cannonballs targeted as best they could reach the invader's camps while Virginian artillery crews retorted and rebuked. Expectations of assaulting the city stockades and walls with infantry are soon faded as the early winter twilight soon eclipses both sides. Even without sunlight into the evening, the forces continue to be illuminated by continual artillery barrages, though the infantry of Virginia enjoy a day of reprieve to help recover their sore legs. But by morning's first light, it is revealed several punctures in the walls have been made by Virginia despite assuming some casualties themselves. A repertoire of more cannon exchanges announces to both sides a renewal of engagement until General Jackson orders the infantry to begin their marching toward the city.

It only took a handful of attempts before some, then many Virginian men break through the ruptured walls into the city where the Cherokia defenders engage in close quarter fire and heavy melee. Within two hours however, the white flag of surrender is hoisted above the walls with Cherokee commanders fearing absolute devastation of their forces. With news that the bulk of Cherokia's army is engaged still in the Shawnee Confederacy and the southern garrisons remain assailed on another front, Stonewall Jackson's men easily occupy the city with the confidence that they may finally earn a few days respite from their exhaustion.
 
CHAPTER IV: “O'er The Ramparts We Watched“


563324


Turn Music - “Hard Times Come Again No More," by Stephen Foster





World Events, Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred Fifty Four:



-The United Kingdom recognizes the Free Orange State in South Africa, though the new nation has tensions with the Transvaal Republic to its south.

-Trade throughout the Caribbean begins to stagnate as numerous wars consume the nations of the region, particularly in the northern waters.

-As tension between Quebec and the United Kingdom cool with new trade deals, a number of start-up fur companies arise throughout the Northeast of America, though lacking initial funds, begin to use their start up cash to invest in one another as well as the Hudson Bay Company.

-Australia's first telegraph line, linking Melbourne and Williamstown, opens.

-The Catholic University of Ireland is founded, allowing good Catholics to receive an education elsewhere from the “godless colleges” set up by the ruling English.

-In search for fresh wilderness out in the Republic of Alta, the Willamette Trail is formed. Though the previous year saw many mountain men and ruffians carve out the path to the west, larger wagon trains of families begin to be a common sight and soon is used by pioneers other than Ozarkians to head to the state of Willamette, Alta.

-The Imperial Army of Mexico begins its campaign to retake Sonora from Anglo-American filibusters. Though the white militias find themselves severely out matched by the disciplined and well-supplied Mexican forces, they manage to retain control over a handful of towns and villages by the end of the year. With the outlook bleak, many filibusters abandon the cause of the self-declared Republic of Senora, though William Walker remains committed to the end.

-In August, a joint Anglo-French military force attacks the Russian fort Bomarsund in the Baltic Sea. The expedition overcomes the Finnish-Russian defenders, resulting in the complete demolition of the fort before the English and French forces depart.

-A pioneer named William Larimer Jr. heading on the Willamette Trail discovers some gold in the foothills of the South Platte River, leading to some Ozarkians and pioneers to divert their journey away from the Republic of Alta. By the end of the year, a small town arises in the middle of the Cheyenne Peoples territory.

-New Englander James Ambrose Cutting using the collodion wet plate process, creates the ambrotype photograph.

-Elections in Arcadia are postponed as the Parti National Français throws massive protests and boycotts throughout the nation over perceived hostility to itself by other parties. The political stability of Arcadia becomes unravelled by the end of the year as many in the government as well as the army begin to choose party and language affiliation over national unity. A number of francophiles in the country begin calling on a union with Quebec as the only solution to their national crisis, causing uproars among the Anglophones of the country.

-The Kingdom of Denmark opens Iceland to international trade.

-A hunting party of Lakota Sioux on the border between Sioux lands and the Republic of Zion encounter a young calf loose on the plains. They kill and eat the cow, but are discovered by the animal’s Mormon owners, resulting in a skirmish and death of the Mormon men. When news spreads of the “unprovoked murders” of the Mormons, militias are formed and a state of war becomes apparent between the Amerindians and the Republic of Zion. Though the war has no name in the Zion, eastern papers coin it as the “Mormon Cow War”.

-Following the death of his brother, King Frederick Augustus II, Johann becomes the King of Saxony. As monarch, he is hoped to expand Saxony’s diplomacy and trade throughout Europe.

-A cholera epidemic spreads throughout London in September. Though the disease results in the deaths of nearly 10,000 people, doctors trace the disease to a single water pump, proving that the disease is waterborne.

-The Republic of West Florida holds an election, giving 64 year old politician John Eaton the presidency.

-England, France, and the Ottoman Empire decide to embark on a campaign to capture Sevastopol, home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. They soon land troops on the Crimean Peninsula and engage in the first major land battle of the war at the River Alma, resulting in an allied victory over the Russians.

-Allied forces opt for a protracted siege of Sevastopol, though the first battle of the siege is marred by miscommunication and terrible tactics, resulting in high casualties and indecisive victor. The blunders of the battle are made famous soon after by Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s published poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade”. Conditions are made worse for the allies as a supply fleet bringing troops cold weather gear sinks in the Black Sea from a massive storm.

-French diplomats in Egypt manage to create the Suez Canal Company, leasing land in the Sinai Peninsula for 99 years with the intention of building a canal for all nations to use.

-Pope Pius IX ex cathedra defines the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, holding that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin.

-Near the end of the year, General Melo’s forces and the Republic of Peru snuff out the remaining Ecuador resistance. Though also at war with one another, after years of conflict, a general ceasefire is agreed to in order to discuss the formal partition of their former neighbor. With the war coming to a close, General Melo will soon be able to focus on more domestic affairs, such as the intrusion of foreigners in the Panama province.


Current Player Involved Conflicts:
Yucatec War: Republic of Yucatan vs. Georgian Republic (Since 1852)
Californio War: California Insurgents + Republic of Alta + Republic of Rio Grande vs. Empire of Mexico
Rio de la Plata War: Argentina Confederacy vs. State of Bueno Aires + Republic of Entre Rios (Since 1852)
Crimean War: Russian Empire vs. Ottoman Empire + United Kingdom + Republic of France + Republic of Quebec (Since 1853)
Second Ohio River War: Commonwealth of Virginia + Carolina Confederacy vs. Cherokia + Illinois Confederacy + Shawnee Confederacy
Atlantic War: Georgian Republic vs. Kingdom of Louisiana + Commonwealth of Pennsylvania + Republic of New York


Other Conflicts in the Western Hemisphere:
Filibuster Revolt: White insurgents vs. Empire of Mexico (Since 1853)
Ecuador-Peruvian War: Republic of Ecuador vs. Republic of Peru vs. Gran Colombia (Since 1851)
Chiapas Mayan Rebellion: Empire of Mexico vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Yucatec Mayan Rebellion: Republic of Yucatan vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Petén Mayan Rebellion: United States of Central America vs. Mayan Rebels (Since 1852)
Cuban Rebellion: Kingdom of Spain vs. Cuban Rebels (Since 1852)
Mormon Cow War: Republic of Zion vs. Lakota Sioux


Conflicts Outside the Western Hemisphere:
Burmese-Siamese War: Burma vs. Siam (Since 1849)
Taiping Rebellion: Taiping Heavenly Kingdom vs. Qing Empire of China (Since 1850)
Various Regional Chinese Uprisings: Ethnic minority militias vs. Qing Empire of China (Since 1851)
Herzegovina Uprising: Serbian rebels vs. Ottoman Empire (Since 1852)



563321
Republic of Alta - Milke
President: Michael Quixano
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Sacramento
Largest City: Sacramento


-Concerned with the rising tensions between Ozark pioneers and natives in the north, President Quixano comes up with a plan to enlist the new arrivals into the invasions of Mexico, both supporting the war effort while removing Alta’s northern problems. Discovering former Ozark president John C. Frémont among those who have settled in Wiliamette, he is summoned to Sacramento at the invitation of President Quixano. Upon his arrival, discussion of problems with the Ozark expatriates and the indians that Sacramento is intent on keeping peaceful relations with take most of their time.

-A solution is made between the two leaders after a few days of deliberation. Frémont is given a rank of Major General in the Army of Alta and tasked with recruiting as many Ozark pioneers under his command with a plan to use them against the Empire of Mexico. If service is performed honorably, President Quixano’s government will help organize the Ozarkian land claims to the Central Valley region south of Sacramento and retire Frémont from his military service to Alta after the war in favor of offering him the first governorship of the state. Soon after, General Frémont returns to the pioneer settlements vigorously seeking out his countrymen to join him in Alta’s cause. Every man that signs on immediately receives one of the Georgian rifles that arrived in San Fransisco a few months prior in late 1853.

-As chilled winds blow across Los Angeles in February, the Altan troops fortified on Palos Verdes hills plan their offensive against the Mexican forces within the city. Realizing that the vaqueros represent a morale boost both for the Mexican Army as well as pro-imperial citizens within the city, a handful of the stealthiest Altan scouts are sent to survey their camp. With the need to keep their hundred or so horses together, the vanqueros keep their residence on the outskirts of the city. On a particularly cold night, seeing the cowboys huddle together under campfires or attempt to keep warm with bottles of liquor, the Altan scouts quietly pass by guards haphazardly keeping watch over their horses. With ease, the equine tethers are cut and the rudimentary fencing is quietly torn down. Immediately, the silence of the night is broken with several gunshots. The vanqueros fearing ambush quickly but drunkenly grab their weapons and begin to encircle the camp, only to discover the gunfire was an intentional startle of the horses which now disperse into the open lands in a stampede for their freedom.

-With the Mexican Imperial Army as well as the populace demoralized by the defeat of the vanqueros without even an honorable battle, it is with ease that a number of hispanic Altans dressed as local cowboys approach the presidio a few days later in the evening. With the handful of men is a small wagon containing several large jugs of liquor, which they claim is from the people of Los Angeles to their most worthy defenders. Immediately the fort’s gates are open and the disguised Altans pass around the jugs to as many soldiers as possible to ensure ease for the next part of their subterfuge. Several hours pass by and a large portion of the garrison either drunk or passed out, the Altans quietly unhook the locks on the fort’s gates.

-The operatives then move to the presidio walls, slitting the throats of Mexican soldiers standing guard and begin spiking the cannons. Several minutes pass by before the bulk of the Altan army, having quietly positioned themselves outside of the fort in the darkness, bursts through the gates with gunfire to announce their attack. A handful of Mexican soldiers, mostly those that refused to drink, call to arms and attempt to rebut the Altan’s entry into their fort, but are quickly dispatched and overwhelm. The remaining Imperial troops become captured, including the fort’s commanding officer. A number of Mexican soldiers do not realize they are captives until the next morning, awaking to situational migraines as much as physical ones.

-With the capture of Los Angeles nearly bloodless and news of the Imperial Mexican Army remaining occupied primarily with the Sonoran filibusters and tied down heavily with the Republic of the Rio Grande, President Quixano and his government takes an intermission from directing the war in favor of domestic governance. With iron and steel critical to the war effort, the government pushes large funds to to constructing a foundry in the capital as well as numerous subsidies toward anyone who begins mining iron ore in the surrounding region rather than gold. Much of the subsidies are quickly taken by those miners or bosses who saw the war as an inevitable investment and had already begun exploiting and panning the ground. Over the course of the year, the largest iron mine comes under the ownership of gold miner George Hearst who works to produce as much as possible for the benefit of receiving the bulk of the subsidies alloted.

-Occupied Los Angeles spends much of the spring and early summer hearing speeches by officers of the Altan Army on the merits of their nation over the Empire of Mexico, including the virtue of a slaveless society as well as equal opportunity and voting for every man regardless of wealth or property. Slowly over the course of the months, the Mexicans of Los Angeles begin to associate themselves more as Californios than with the government in Mexico City. When the military occupiers feel the time is right in July, a regional referendum modelled much after the one in San Francisco the year before is given. When the voting is finished and the polls are tallied, it is announced that Los Angeles, and by default the region surrounding it, has voted in favor of seceding from Mexico and joining the Republic of Alta. Much praise and celebration spreads through Sacramento upon hearing the news, though records of how close the vote was becomes generally inflated throughout the papers.

-Soon after the referendum, news of Mexico’s crushing victory over the self-declared Republic of Sonora and its white filibuster army reaches the capital. With the filibusters nearly defeated and contained into a cluster of small towns, fears of an attempt to retake Los Angeles take hold of President Quixano and his military staff. To certify Alta’s supremacy of the region, Major General Frémont’s “Arcansas Rifles” regiment is ordered to Los Angeles to participate in an invasion of San Diego. The Ozark troops arrive in newly incorporated Altan city in early August and Frémont is appointed as second in command to General Andrés Pico for the assault. It is revealed to the Altan forces in Los Angeles that General Frémont arrived not only with fresh troops but with new cannons made within the borders of Alta and munitions filled with shrapnel shot. It is hoped that should another siege of a presidio occur in Los Angeles, the special ammunition will evict the troops from the fortifications without heavily damaging the infrastructure and thus keeping it intact for Altan use in the future.

-The army quickly departs and marches southwards toward their target, forgoing the subtleness or deception used to seize Los Angeles. With confidence higher than ever, morale endless, and news of Alta’s continued victories against Mexico spreading, it is believed my General Pico that the mere direction of the army’s march should be enough to dissuade any imperial troops within San Diego from defending the city. Within two weeks of travel, the army begins to encamp itself outside their target with scouts surveying the size of their opponent. It is revealed soon after that majority of the Mexican army stationed at San Diego had been ordered east to deal with Sonoran rebels under the assumption of Los Angeles capable of defending itself. Without hesitation, Altan troops flood the port city with only minor skirmishes against imperial troops and plant the Bear Flag in its soil.

-For the rest of the year, the Arcansas Rifles occupy San Diego while planned defenses of any retaliation from the Mexican Army is prepared. But with no major city or supply depot between the newly occupied coastal cities and the Mexican heartland and the continued war of attrition between the Mexican Army and the Republic of Rio Grande closer to home, many officials in Sacramento begin discussing the idea of suing for peace to secure their annexations before Mexico is capable of turning its full force upon them while remaining in a state of war.


***
State of Buenos Aires - Edward Dewey
President: Juan Manuel del Rosas
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Buenos Aires
Largest City: Buenos Aires


-As the Rio de la Plata War enters its third year, President Rosas of Buenos Aires begins plans to end the conflict in his country’s favor as soon as possible. Throughout the spring, an extensive plan to seize the Argentina capital of Córdoba is designed.

-With some coordination with Entre Rios troops covering the northern flank, Buenos Aires soldiers begin marching toward the enemy city in an obvious, direct manner in which enemy scouts easily pick up. Predictably, Argentina swings a portion of its forces southward to deal with the invading army and make contact with Buenos Aires men at Villa Maria on April 15th.

-During the first few musket volleys, locking the two armies into the engagement, a secondary cavalry army of Buenos Aires appears on the flank of the enemy forces, causing panic among the the Argentinians. While some units stand their ground, many on the left flank begin to route or retreat, leaving the forces broken. Soon enough, within an hour the entire Argentinian army who confidentantly stood their ground at the start are overwhelmed. No quarter is given to the enlisted soldiers, leaving only a few dozen officers as prisoners of Buenos Aires. The routing infantry is pursued harshly by the cavalry, causing Argentinian casualties to rise even after majority of the battle was over.

-News of the Massacre of Villa Maria puts the capital Córdoba into a panic. Desertion becomes prevalent as President Rosas’ soldiers approach the city, leaving an already weakened defense helpless. When the Buenos Aires army reaches the city, it engages with a few diehard patriot Argentinian units before overrunning them. Much to Rosas’ delight, the president of the Argentina Confederacy, José María Paz, is captured within the capitol building of the city, having refused to leave.

-Throughout the rest of the year, sparse skirmishes with Argentinian loyalist soldiers occur throughout Patagonia but with little coordination with their government captured and capital occupied. Despite this, a small number of Argentinian army units manage to accumulate in the city of La Rioja. Buenos Aires scouts estimate the forces are only numbering around 900 men but are made up of the most loyal and dedicated Argentinian patriots.

-With the war now coming to a close, President Justo José de Urquiza of Entre Rios visits the city of Buenos Aires to discuss occupation and annexation of the Argentina Confederacy. Though the nation ended up playing a minor part in the actual conflict, President Urquiza demands large swaths of land from the conquered nation as his home country was the one initially invaded, sparking the war. Despite this, President Rosas gives little time to the visiting head of state throughout the late fall and early winter, choosing to rather focus himself on domestic issues of his own country that have been neglected due to the war. Plans for a railway throughout the State of Buenos Aires are laid out, much of which include going through regions of the Argentina Confederacy under the assumption that most of that land would soon be annexed.



563320
Cherokia - Sobotnik
First Beloved Man: Abiaka
Governing Party: Modernists
Capital: Cutonuga
Largest City: Cutonuga


-Recognizing the might of the Pennsylvanian forces in invading the Shawnee Confederacy, John Ridge approaches the enemy forces in mid January on behalf of the Shawnee and Cherokee forces for a parley. A general ceasefire is agreed to while peace talks are discussed, with the two opponents finding quick agreements over issues of trade and abolition of slavery.

-While peace talks with Pennsylvania remain underway, Cherokia becomes invaded by the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Carolina Confederacy seeking to expand their territories westward. With rapid marching, Virginia manages to capture Unegavidsi in early February. A larger army invades the Shawnee Confederacy with the intention of cutting off the Cherokee army and its allies from reclaiming the captured city. Understanding that the Shawnee are both demoralized and exhausted from the defense against the Pennsylvanians, General Junaluska orders the combined forces to retreat to Prophetstown for fear of a combined Virginian-Pennsylvanian assault. Word is quickly sent to the Illinois Confederacy for aid which hastily orders hundreds of warriors eastward. As the Virginians draw closer to Prophetstown, the unified Amerindian armies meet them ten miles from the capital. Though General Junaluska’s command of strategy work well initially, the sheer numbers of the Army of Virginia soon overwhelm them, along with the Illinois warriors disregarding commands of the Cherokee in order to attack whenever they saw fit. After numerous casualties in only a short few hours, the Cherokee command orders a general retreat into the Illinois Confederacy, allowing the Virginians to occupy the Shawnee city with ease, as well as capture majority of the Cherokian cannons.

-Despite the occupations of Unegavidsi and Prophetstown, the Cherokee make a point of ambushing any Virginian who loiters too far from the army encampments throughout the year. With especial use of the traditionalist Chickasaw, it is a common sight throughout the year for the white armies to discover a soldier or two without scalps every morning.

-The Carolina Confederate Army, still using muskets and overly high in confidence against “inferior reds”, manage to accumulate a number of setbacks. Though the main army of Cherokia remains in the far north, the capital of Cutonuga remains well defended. A minor battle outside of the city during the initial invasion prevents the Carolinians from capturing the capital; pushing them into choosing easier conquests. An invasion westward into Cherokia, pushing their way to reach the Mississippi River along the occupation zone of Virginia is decided upon and won as a result of little opposition.. With the regions captured bordering the heartland of the Five Tribes, the Confederate Army suffers greatly from the ambushes and skirmishes against them throughout the year, while Cherokian warriors flee into the wilderness of their homeland while the invaders remain too ignorant of the local terrain to give pursuit.

-Nearing the end of February, the First Beloved Man of the Cherokee, Major Ridge, passes into his eternal sleep. With his son John in Ohio debating with the Pennsylvanians most of the army north of the Ohio River, a political crisis overcomes Cutonuga for several weeks before the Seminole Chief Abiaka finally garners enough support to be named leader of the Five Tribes. As a Seminole, he appeals greatly to the four non-Cherokee tribes who seek their own charge in government while Abiaka’s strong modernist stances on military and infrastructure make him acceptable to the Cherokee majority. In his first speech to the Assembly of Chiefs, Abiaka makes strong condemnations of the Virginians and Carolinans, but includes strong criticism of the armies of the Shawnee and Illinois, making note that they must, under Cherokia leadership, form more modern defenses.

-In early March, a peace agreement is finally reached with the Pennsylvanians with the Treaty of Onondaga. Slavery is abolished in all Amerindian nations regarding the treaty, while a joint customs union is formed between Cherokia, Shawnee, and Pennsylvania to allow tariff free trade between the three while Pennsylvania becomes a protector of the entire union. Despite peace with the northern whites made with promises of protection, Pennsylvanians take little action toward the Virginian armies in the Shawnee Confederacy, keeping a distance from the eastern whites stating that they had invaded before the treaty was signed and thus exempt.

-Chief Abiaka’s first few months in power are fraught with war issues. Combining traditional Amerindian ambushing tactics with modern warfare, a formal skirmisher corps is created and given the finest rifles available with telescopic sights for the best accuracy. Taking men already well learned in native warrior techniques as well as great marksmanship, the new corps needs little new training and is quickly beset against the Carolinians throughout the year, taking several hundred scalps and casualties from the white invaders. Meanwhile, the railroads are given exclusive control of the military as being cut off from the northern rivers make use of them for trade pointless. Hiring numerous engineers, special rail cars designed for troop transport and cannon equipment are made in order to quickly move men across the country when needed.

-To help expand the Cherokee knowledge of white warfare, a small commission of officers and ambassadors make their way to Turkey and then Crimea to encamp with the allied army against Russia. They take quick note of how the failures of command can result in high casualties for an army regardless of being victorious in battle.

-In June, the engineering university in Mobil is given more funding to help furnish the creation of better railroads for both trade and the army throughout Cherokia. While the wealth of the country had always taken precedence, the government now sees this as a military investment into the future. Alongside this, the city sees some extra funding to create factories in which to build better working hand tools and machine tools. To help manage the facilities better, a few Europeans, mostly from England, are contracted to help coordinate the workers and administrate.

-With war throughout the country the most pressing concern for the army, Abiaka orders no more troops be given toward protection of the Panama railroad, instead opting to hire local militias to help keep out theft and potential foreign invasions. Though they are less reliable than the Cherokee and some chiefs argue the money could better used elsewhere, the local muscle seemingly provides an adequate job.

-Inspired by the British Royal Mail service, Cutonuga passes what may have been the sole non-military bill of the year to create the Tribal Mail Service in July. A number of post offices are built in major towns in the non-occupied parts of the country, while the bill keeps a ‘wish list’ of funding opportunities when war ends in Cherokia to put toward expanding telegraph lines as well as creating specialty mail rail cars in the future.

-The five tribes of Cherokia become overcome with anti-white sentiment throughout the year, having been at war with Pennsylvania and now invaded by two other white nations. Though majority recognize the Modernists and their “white” military strategies have kept them safe up to this point, a general fear of losing their identity to their enemy spreads. As a counter to this, more Amerindians begin to grow deeper into their religious spiritual roots. A number of medicine men begin wandering the country preaching of the Evil Spirit from the east strangling Cherokia with the whites and their christ-faiths. Numerous stomp-dances are held to encourage the laymen of the tribes to participate more in spiritual affairs and reattach themselves to the traditionalism the nations had before the arrival of the whites so many years ago.

-Throughout the late summer, fall, and into the winter, General Junaluska and his officers take the combined armies of Cherokia, Shawnee and Illinois to whip them into a more modernized and united fighting force. Focusing heavily on disciplining the men after seeing the Illinois critically ignore commands at the Battle of Prophetstown, threats of gallows and whippings are made to ensure the Illinois come to terms with the modern world of warfare. The General is thankful none are actually sentenced to death for insubordination, allowing the attention-grabbing threat to help mold the Amerindians into a true army. Despite the extra drilling, a solution to the problem of sheer numbers of Virginians and Carolinians against them, even united, remains elusive.



563318
The Georgian Republic - Ruski
President: Alexander Hamilton Stephens
Governing Party:
Capital: Savannah
Largest City: Atlanta


-Though no invasion had scarred the coast of the Georgian Republic throughout the previous year, alarms are sent throughout the nation as a joint fleet of Pennsylvania and New York begin blockading the coasts, particularly around Savannah and Jacksonville while the navy of Louisiana begins to occupy the waters in the Gulf of Mexico from the Republic of West Florida down to the Georgia Keys in mid February.

-Though the navies surrounding Georgia make their intentions clear - to suffocate Georgia’s economy until reparations for the Albany Bombing are given to New York and promise to withdraw from the Yucatan given to Pennsylvania are given - no shots are fired from any of the allied ships against the Georgian navy in harbor nor at merchant vessels docked. However, as merchant vessels begin attempts to run the blockade, the sound of cannon is heard offshore of Savannah as the navies fire warning shots. Though clearly shots across the bow of those running blockades in an attempt to impound them, President Stephens declares a state of war and orders the navy to sally forth into the allied fleet.

-A number of Georgian Navy ironclads, brigs, and sloops leave their safe harbor of Savannah into the allied fleet off the coast on March 2nd. Throughout the day, many citizens as well as government officials stand watch from the shore as echos of musket and cannon fire thunder in the air following the gun flashes off the coast. The Battle of Savannah lasts a bloody and painful six hours until the remains of the Georgian fleet, tattered and limping, manage to sail back into the harbor of the capital. Reports from the officers of the fleet to the War Department give tales of strong naval tactics by their countrymen, but just plainly outnumbered by the joint enemy fleet.

-Throughout the rest of the spring, a state of war remains along the Atlantic coast, though the allies remain off shore. Despite this, plans to defend from an invasion are drawn up as coastal fortifications are continued to be refurbished and rearmed as the year before, but at greater haste. Meanwhile, the national crisis sparks a large recruitment drive, as Georgian countrymen enlist quickly to defend the honor of the country as well as to fight the lies of New York yankees and the erroneous abolitionist ideals of Pennsylvania.

-President Stephens reaches out to the Carolina Confederacy for support in the trying time for the Cotton Kings. The reply from President Pickens is one of mixed support. Entangled in a war with Cherokia, much of his army cannot be rationed to aid Georgia and joining the conflict would essentially give the Carolina Confederacy a two-front war. Though Georgia’s northern neighbor remains a staunch supporter of his efforts and soon trade to and from Georgia manages to slowly trickle through Carolina ports.

-Despite the non-aggression pact signed with Cherokia, having Georgia’s friendlier neighbor invade them gives the government unease about the future with the indians. To prevent the conflicts of Virginia and Carolina spilling into Georgia, much of the new recruits and cadets for the Army are stationed along the Cherokia-Georgian border, helping to replenish the ranks of the outposts there as the experienced and disciplined units occupy the coastal forts in West Florida and along the Atlantic.

-Throughout the spring and early summer, the blockade continues with occasional skirmishes between the navies as well as numerous blockade running attempts with varied results of success. On June 30th, a Georgian fleet from West Florida’s capital Pensacola with a token Floridan navy tagging along sails out of port to engage with the Kingdom of Louisiana’s navy. The first thirty minutes of the Battle of Pensacola erupts as expected, with it apparent to the French officers that this is no skirmish like before but a legitimate attempt by the Georgians to free their territorial waters. The battle continues with no clear victor near in sight until Georgian vessels uniformly change their cannonfire from ball and shot to quicklime shells. Targeting the more injured vessels with gaping holes from previous hits, the french crews quickly become blinded and suffocated. Cannonfire from the Louisiana fleet slows its pace as the Georgian navy pushes forward. When two french ships collide with due to poor navigation in the smokey, acidic air, the flagship signals retreat, giving Georgia a clear victory and for several months an open port of trade.

-With much of the Louisianan fleet limping back to New Orleans, the Gulf fleet of Georgia begins a campaign against the kingdom’s merchants, boarding vessels and impounding property “as they have done to us the year before from the Yucatan.” Despite the desire to completely disrupt their trade, the losses in battle keep much of the Georgian navy back along its homewaters and on the defensive, though several relief journeys are made to General Longstreet’s men in the Yucatan to maintain the occupation there.

-With the potential of invasion from either coast and a slight reprieve with winning in the Gulf of Mexico, the Georgian government pushes for construction of a new rail line from Pensacola, West Florida to the Georgian capital of Savannah, with Atlanta as a critical juncture. While the government leases the use of slaves to begin construction immediately and cheaply, the toll of the blockade drives iron prices higher than normal. The government is forced to pay a massive debt to import its iron and steel from the Carolinas as oppose to their own ports. A stronger reliance on Cherokian iron becomes the only alternative near the end of the year.

-The war continues into the autumn and early winter just as it started, with allied navies off the Atlantic coast blockading much of Georgia’s critical ports. Though open trade through the Carolinas and West Florida help, they remain unmatched to the obstructed ports along the Atlantic and Georgia’s economy becomes to feel the burden. Despite this, many white Georgians remain optimistic as much as worried.



563316
Kingdom of Louisiana - Pez
Monarch: Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte I
Governing Party: Parti Régimist
Capital: New Orleans
Largest City: New Orleans


-With cooperation between the Empire of Haiti and Kingdom of Louisiana having grown over the past year with freeing mulatto and negro prisoners of Georgia, an official defensive pact between the two francophone monarchies mark the beginning of the year.

-With conflict rising between the kingdom and the Georgian Republic, King Napoléon summons the ambassadors of other American states to come to a regional agreement on how to handle the “rogue state” of east. It is revealed that Pennsylvania and New York have already concluded a military plan of operation, which Louisiana quickly commits its navy to - the blockading of Georgian ports until they submit to allied will.

-The bulk of the navy is sent out in mid February and quickly establishes itself off the coasts of Republic of West Florida and Georgia while the Mid-Atlantic Republics begin blockading the Atlantic coast. The Georgian navy based in West Florida’s capital of Pensacola remains in port throughout the late winter, and after news of allied naval victory at Savannah, morale for the Louisianan sailors remain high but alert as Georgia declares war on all three allied nations.

-Though a state of war exists between Louisiana and Georgia, few military entanglements arise from either side beyond a bloodless skirmish occasionally or a ship running the blockade. Despite this, the army in Louisiana is ordered to begin work on fortifications of New Orleans to defend against any naval intrusion. At the mouth of the bay, a star fort is built and named Fort Austerlitz after Napoléon Bonaparte’s greatest victory in the 1800s. Despite the prestigious name, the fort remains fairly small due to the swampy geography of the land.

-In late spring, an agreement between Louisiana and Cherokia is reached, with connecting the two nations by railroad. A long line is planned between the two capitals of New Orleans and Cutonuga and work begins immediately. With much of Cherokia rail funding diverted to Panama, the bulk of expenditures are laid on the kingdom where hopes of reimbursement by fresh commerce over the future years will refund the investment quickly.

-Recognizing the newly annexed Ozark Federation is becoming a launching pad for white pioneers heading westward, the government officiates over the construction of a new settlement on the border with the Plains Indians and Ozark by the Missouri River. The city is named Grand César as a commemoration for the birth of Crown Prince César-Louis Napoléon the year before.

-On June 30th, the fleet of Georgia sails from Louisiana blockaded Pensacola. With the size of the fleet approaching, the French-speaking officers quickly assume that this will be no skirmish but campaign to dislodge them from West Florida’s waters. Sailors quickly assume battlestations and arm cannons as the first shots fired from both sides have their fair number of hits and misses. Morale remains high as one Georgian sloop is clearly disabled early in the battle, but in complete concert the Georgian fleet ceases normal bombardment of ball and shot, firing explosive quicklime shells into the Louisianan fleet. Targeting the more tattered ships, the chemical smoke fumigates within several brigs, blinding officers and seamen alike. The battle continues, but the admiral of the fleet observes that french cannons are slow to fire in pace with the Georgians. By his own eyes he watches a brig accidentally ram into another friendly ship with the only assumption that its pilots have been disabled or blinded by the smoke and signal flags of retreat are hoisted.

-The navy limps back to New Orleans where many of the sailors suffering from the effects of the quicklime are tended to through many city hospitals, where some are declared permanently blind. The fleet suffers only fair damage and is physically seaworthy after spending a month with repairs, but the crews remain demoralized or injured, preventing the war ministry from ordering a retort to Georgia. News soon reaches the capital thereafter of the Georgian navy, free to roam in the Gulf, have begun impounding Louisianan merchant vessels and their cargo as a “tit for tat” from the year prior.

-To give a glimmer of new morale, it is announced on the one year birthday of Crown Prince César-Louis Napoléon that Queen Catherine is once more with child with an expected due date in the late winter of next year.

-While the navy refurbishes its vessels and replenishes its seamen, the government and King Napoléon work on setting government funds aside for promoting philosophy and the arts throughout the nation. Believing the the opening of galleries and theaters may take the war off the minds of much of the populace, a number of fresh construction works are begun in New Orleans and much of the south. Invitations are sent to worthy political thinkers and artists in Europe, but with much of the Gulf of Mexico in a state of war, travel to Louisiana becomes a dangerous gamble.

-The year ends with frustrating news in the annexed Ozark regions as implementing Louisiana civil law begins to clash with general practices of the region under common law. While much of the Ozark’s laws were followed almost by a case-by-case manner, many property rights and civil suits that were accepted under the precedence of common law find themselves overturned by French justices, causing some minor protests in St. Louis.



563315
Commonwealth of New England - Del
President: Franklin Pierce
Governing Party: Republican Party
Capital: Boston
Largest City: Boston


-Despite rough late winter seas, President Pierce spends much of the early year travelling throughout Europe. Though he had campaigned three years prior for his office under the flag of isolationism, the industrial barons of New England have successfully lobbied his government to shift from isolation to simple, but strict non-interventionism. Despite losing a few more dedicated supporters, the President happily saw majority of his party and his voters agree with the shift in policy, leaving him free to pursue trade deals with European states across the Atlantic in person.

-After a trade deal with Belgium, France, and Netherlands is created, Pierce spends much time in London discussing an educational exchange. The New England colleges of Yale and Harvard, through Pierce’s deals, are able to send students to England’s older colleges of Oxford and Cambridge to further their studies as well as bring back their experiences home.

-Though much of the trade agreements with European countries often encompass fishing, timber, and shipbuilding industries, President Pierce signs a military trade agreement with France to import their very best cannons. While immediate cannon production in France is put toward their war with Russia, assumptions of speedy victory are promised to meet New England’s orders “soon”.

-As April nears a close, the President and his envoy of delegates end their European tour in Prussia where they witness the strength of Frederick William IV’s army in a military parade. Impressed by the discipline and training from the privates up to the generals, the Commonwealth of New England’s War Department quickly begins organizing a full time General Staff upon the return home of the president.

-To help keep up on industrial exports as well as expanding New England’s shipbuilding industry, lands in the peripheral of Boston are purchased by the government to develop into expansive ports in the early summer. While much of the rest of the year is spent dredging and constructing new facilities, it is believed by the end of next year majority of the ports will be functional enough to lease or sell to private companies. Granted many of the foremen are white New Englanders, the government hires large numbers of Irish immigrants for the construction labor, helping both give those who have near to nothing a job while, hopefully, integrating them into New England’s society easier.

-Though new ports in the capital will help ease the congestion of ships exporting New England’s goods, getting those goods to the city itself remains a slow task for horse-drawn wagons. To help increase the speed in which commerce and travel around the nation can meet, a large national railroad plan is drawn up. Connecting all of the state capitals, from Hartford to Providence, up to Boston, then swinging up to Concord, the plan soon gets the nickname “the Fishhook line” for its shape drawn out on a map. The bulk of the work finishes before the end of the year, connecting the southern cities while the laborious task to connect Boston through the hills and mountains to Concord is expected to be finished by the end of next summer.

-To help build off of the university exchange with England, President Pierce’s government turns to education at home. Though a dedicated conservative Republican, the President appoints Whig senator Horace Mann to governor the development of an education bill in a show of bipartisanship. Laying out several key principles, such as compulsory free education up to age 14 and grounded in secular and New Englander values, a detailed and swift passing of the National School Act of 1854 is signed into law with ease.

-Though the Commonwealth of New England has spent a great deal of money and effort to keep its neighbors stable, most notably Arcadia, President Pierce - as part of his non-interventionist platform - announces the unilateral withdraw of finances and military support of the country’s northern neighbor. President Head of Arcadia is furious at the announcement, but has few options to react as political turmoil in his country continues to grow from the francophile citizens of his nation.



563325
Republic of New York - Native Hunter
President: Stephan Van Rensselaer IV
Governing Party: Beaver Party
Capital: Albany
Largest City: New York City


-Though many in the opposition parties of New York continue to push an anti-British narrative toward the Albany Bombing, in the newly rebuilt capitol building they remain a minority. President Rensselaer with his Beaver Party and allied Manorial Party make an official declaration of blame toward the Georgian Republic and immediately sends word to the Pennsylvanians, who agree to an allied blockade of the Georgian coast. A week later, diplomats from Louisiana are prompted to join in the endeavour given their already high tensions in the Gulf of Mexico.

-Throughout the later weeks of February, a dozen ships leaving or attempting to enter Georgian ports on the Atlantic are impounded, though with some managing to elude the gauntlet of naval power. With strict orders to not damage or injure any vessels, only warning shots across the bow are fired from the allied navy. Despite this restriction, on March 2nd, a large Georgian fleet departs from Savannah to what New York officers only assume is to be an engagement, amounting to a declaration of war. High on morale, the Battle of Savannah pits New York and Pennsylvania’s larger wooden vessels against the smaller but heavily armored ironclads of the Georgian fleet. Despite heavier guns, many of the cannon fire from the fleet just ricocheted off the enemy armor early in the battle. Choosing weaker targets, the allied fleet moves to engage the wooden vessels of Georgia, which are decimated and forces a Georgian retreat back to safe haven.

-With no choice but to declare a state of war, President Rensselaer announces the Presidential Powers Edict, giving him absolute control over matters of military abroad as well as powers of policing at home. The oppositions parties immediately protest, but with assurances that the dictatorial powers are only as temporary as the war with Georgia, much of the government backs the President. With the army mobilized throughout Long Island but not yet with orders of any invasion, the units are ordered to begin policing New York City and other major ports of entry as a marshal law, both to protect the citizens from potential terrorist actions as well as protect immigrants from native New Yorkers.

-Building off the marshal policing of the army, Rensselaer signs the New York Justice Decree, giving himself the power to appoint municipal police forces throughout the country. Knowing that the army cannot keep the law forever nor is its intended purpose, dozens of county sheriffs are appointed, tasked with organizing local police forces to curb down on crime of any kind, while a marshal service is tasked with crimes of a more national nature. In larger cities, police barracks are constructed in order to keep a 24/7 watch.

-Dismay reaches Albany over news of Georgia’s victory over Louisiana on June 30th and the following withdraw of francophone fleet back to New Orleans. Fearing that Georgia’s navy could potentially outflank the Atlantic blockade, the government pushes a quick bill of funding to draw in more carpenters from around the nation to Long Island and Newark to expedite the construction of naval ships begun the year before. By year’s end, a small squadron of armored brigs makes its debut on the waves, while the larger ships-of-the-line are hoped to join them early next year. Despite the growing size of the navy, ways to deal with heavily armored ironclads remain a concern for the admiralty.

-With the rest of the year uneventful in regard to the war, the government begins to deal with more domestic matters. Inspired by the construction of the new capitol, funding toward neo-gothic designed building development is pushed through. It is hoped that New York cityscapes will be marked in time by the architectural style. Much of the funding goes toward places of entertainment and pleasure, such as new opera houses, parks, and art galleries.



563314
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - Gnomical
President: Henry P. Williamson
Governing Party: Freedom Party
Capital: Philadelphia
Largest City: Pittsburgh


-Disgusted by Georgia’s overt invasion of the Yucatan and New York’s official proclamation of blame for the Albany Bombing, President Williamson quickly agrees to send the navy to jointly blockade the Atlantic coast of Georgia. After several ships are captured trying to enter or leave Savannah, the Georgian fleet departs from their safe harbor to attack the allied navies. Though initially on the defensive, Pennsylvanian seamen and commanders perform admirably, combining with the numbers of the allied fleet and win the battle. However, with Georgia formally declaring war against the Commonwealth, pressure on the government reaches a near boil as the country is on a two front war.

-Almost as a sign from heaven, John Ridge, son of the head chief of the Cherokee, approaches Pennsylvanian soldiers in the Shawnee Confederacy to discuss terms of peace. The promise to abolish slavery in the indian nations is quickly agreed to and further terms are discussed throughout the month. While deliberation goes on, news of Virginia’s invasion of the Cherokee and Shawnee hit Philadelphia, creating a problematic circumstance in which the enemy of Pennsylvania’s enemy is, situationally, a friend.

-Though Virginia manages to capture Prophetstown, the Pennsylvanian forces, locked in peace negotiations, refuse to take advantage to press on their own war. Instead, defensive measures are taken against the Virginians while a clear zone of what each Anglo-American nation occupies in the indian country. Rudimentary blockhouses are established, especially along the Ohio River and the Pennsylvanian Army moves to occupy most of the eastern region of the Shawnee Confederacy both to keep the domestic peace as well as to prevent the Virginians from encroaching eastward.

-Peace is reached between Cherokia and Pennsylvania announced in newspapers throughout the commonwealth on March 7th, with favorable terms to all parties. The indian nations will form an economic custom union in which Pennsylvania will be declared protector over militarily. While John Ridge pushes that the treaty should mean Pennsylvania ought to be now at war with Virginia, the Virginian ambassador and his delegates put great pressure on President Williamson that they had invaded prior to any established agreement and therefore are exempt from Pennsylvania’s protection over the redskins. With war against Georgia now a problem, the president reluctantly decides to shelve any thought of invading Virginia for the sake of indians, at least for now.

-With the Shawnee a nominal ally and now an economic partner, Philadelphian investors establish the Ohio West Railroad Company with intention of connecting the railroads finished last year to Pittsburgh out through the Ohio region into the Shawnee Confederacy. By the end of the year, lines between Pittsburgh and Toledo are finished with much of the construction into the Indian nation nearing completion.

-Though Pennsylvania, by treaty, is mandated to respect the autonomy and domestic issues of the indian nations under the Amerindian Customs Union, the lack of Shawnee government in the eastern portion of the confederacy due to the war and further cut off from Virginian invaders leaves much of the land lawless and in economic drought. To help rebuild, numerous Pennsylvanians begin to cross the border into the Confederacy to help create an industrial zone for the country once conflicts are over in the region. As these men begin to look for natural resources for the Customs Union to exploit, some of their greater families immigrate into the region as well.

-Despite the inclusion into the economic union, the opposition Steadfast Party manages to push several limitations on Pennsylvanian participation as part of their isolationist policies. Trade caps are introduced in that, while Cherokia may purchase Pennsylvanian goods cheaper than elsewhere, there is a total limit on a number of materials each year that can be exported, especially on Pittsburgh steel.


563311
Republic of Quebec - Heyitsjiwon
President: Wolfred Nelson
Governing Party: Blue Party
Capital: Quebec City
Largest City: Montreal


-As cold winds harass the cities of Quebec in early 1854, newspapers harass public opinion of a war a world away. News of England and France joining forces with the Ottoman Empire to defend the “rights of Catholics in the Holy Land” as well as stories of Russian atrocities in the Balkans sweep the headlines in Quebec City and Montreal, leaving a public sentiment supporting the allies. Capitalizing on this, President Nelson maneuvers the government into negotiating an alliance with the coalition against Russia. By early February, the Republic of Quebec declares war on the Empire of Russia. Joining the alliance is welcomed warmly by France, and with unease by the English given territorial disputes in North America, though throughout the year the war turns bitter rivals into closer allies by shared bloodshed.

-With the distance between Crimea and the Balkans greater from Quebec than any of the other allies, the abrupt declaration needed no immediate mobilization and so for several weeks, the government of Quebec goes about business as usual. In this time, a Guano Islands Act of 1854 is passed, giving ownership recognition to any Québécois individual or company that discovers an unclaimed island around the world so long as guano found on the island is mined and exported to Quebec. After this law is enacted, the stocks of several gunsmithing companies begin to rise in the Quebec City National Stock Exchange with the expectation of cheaper saltpeter for gunpowder to arrive in Montreal’s ports as well as due to the war involving Georgia cutting off their gun exports. With expectations high for investment, several new small-time arms manufactures appear along the St. Lawrence River, giving the Army of Quebec several contract options.

-The stocks of Smith & Wesson Company rise the most, as the Québécois government takes advantage of its discounted arms deal and orders a vast number of breech-loading and volcanic rifles for the army. Several orders are filled by the end of April as the Army begins to mobilize. The Quebec Foreign Legion sends word throughout the Americas to recruit as well, attracting a small assembly of white filibusters though with war between Georgia and the Mid Atlantic Republics and Virginia’s invasion of Cherokia, it’s a seller’s market for mercenaries on the continent.

-While the allies set their sights on Sevastopol, Crimea as their priority target, the government of Quebec decides to attack Russia somewhat closer to their own borders. The city of Novo-Archangelsk, capital of Russian America, is chosen as an easy victory. Several ships depart Montreal in late April full of soldiers and the Foreign Legion to sail to Port Par La Suite, join with some of the fleet there and sail north along the Pacific coast of the Americas to invade their target.

-While the fleet makes the six month journey around the continents, President Nelson’s government establishes the Quebec Military Officer Institute in the city of Trois-Rivières in which to grow a prestigious officer corps of native Québécois men. Though any graduate is expected to miss the current war, it is hoped with the wars south of the nation many cadets learn of modern warfare easily by report and newspaper as much as from their professors.

-Near the end of July, the flag of Quebec is placed on Ducie Island by the fleet sailing in the Pacific northward, as it is discovered to have sizable portions of guano on the island. News reaches Quebec City later in the year, along with news of several Québécois claiming the Swan Islands, Roncador Cay Island, and the Serranilla Bank islets in the Caribbean under the Guano Islands Act, though official complaints by the United States of Central America is given over disputes of sovereignty given their close proximity to them.

-In early September, the fleet arrives off the coast of Novo-Archangelsk. The initial plan of bombarding the fort guarding the small colonial town then landing troops south of the island and marching on it inland is quickly scrapped as the token Russian force quickly hoists a white flag over the fort after a mere ten minutes of cannon fire. Québécois soldiers enter and occupy the town and its fort soon after, while the two dozen Russian soldiers are held loosely as POWs, allowed to roam the town within reason but without their arms. A day later, a dozen Québécois soldiers are given horses and sent on the 5 week ride across the continent to reach their homeland and inform on their easy victory.

-While the army occupies Baranof Island, much of the fleet departs the North American waters to join the Anglo-French fleet under Rear-Admiral David Price and participate in the Siege of Petropavlovsk in East Asia. While the French and English land their troops, the Québécois navy aids in the bombardment of the Russian fortifications. Though the battle is as bloody as the rest in the war so far, the Allies manage to capture the Russian City.

-Successful war news, a growing economy, and an expanding overseas territories marks many successes of President Wolfred Nelson’s governing Blue Party. Banking on that success, the Blue Party’s political alliance with the Monarchy Party of Quebec come to a compromise to push a referendum to the people, deciding whether to become a constitutional monarchy. While initial sentiment is negative, the announcement of the popular Count Henri as the candidate as the potential Québécois monarch turns a slight majority support. The referendum is held in late October and after several days of vote counting, by a small margin, the will of the people of Quebec evidently is a desire for a king. As early winter snows fall throughout the rest of the year, the government makes preparations for a coronation, considering dates sometime in early 1855, though the liberal Parti Canadien make political obstructions in the process as much as possible.

-Understanding that Quebec has a small population but a growing overseas realm, the last political action President Nelson pushes through the government before his office changes purpose is the National Settlement Act, allowing European immigration to the Caribbean islands of St John, St Croix and St Thomas, as well as open settlement to the area around Port Par La Suite. Though the doors to settlement is open to all, a preferential status is given to French immigrants.



563310
Commonwealth of Virginia - Joshuadium
President: Abraham Lincoln
Governing Party: Whig Party
Capital: Richmond
Largest City: Norfolk


-With Cherokia’s unifying leader ailing, its armies in a foreign land, and its allies engaged with a stronger force, President Lincoln, under heavy pressure from both the opposition as well as his Kentucky constituents that helped launched him to office, declares war on Cherokia, ordering a rapid invasion westward in concert with the Carolina Confederacy in hopes of taking advantage of their indian neighbors’ situation. Haste and urgency haunts the army's march westward as news of peace talks between Pennsylvania, Cherokia, and the Shawnee Confederacy reach Richmond.

-The Virginian army is divided into two forces, under the commands of General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, with a goal of invading Cherokia lands that faithfully belong to Virginia’s manifest destiny as well as to utterly decimate their armies before they can react. Despite heavy snowfall in mid January, the armies exhaust themselves to reach western Kentucky before dividing; General Lee going north across the Ohio while General Jackson continues west with the bulk of the cavalry.

-Under the command of J. E. B. Stuart, General Jackson’s large cavalry contingents begin carving a path ahead of infantry and cannon toward the Cherokia city of Unegvadisi, cutting telegraph lines and sabotaging railroads, all the while decimating any local Chickasaw warriors attempting resistance. They soon arrive on the outskirts of the city and maintain a defensive encampment a few miles from the indians a handful of days before Jackson’s full force arrives. Though the rapid advancement has caught the entire nation of Cherokia off guard, the immediate forces around Unegvadisi manage enough time to assemble a small defensive force to man the city stockades while moving the city’s cannon from the river banks inland. Led by Cherokia army officers, the city defenders compose themselves of general army with Chickasaw militias and a handful of white men living in the country.

-Despite hastey defenses constructed, Virginian forces encircle the inland border of the city, cutting it off from the rest of Cherokia save only by the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Most of the first day of battle is marked by heavy exchange of cannon, with Cherokian forces daring not to leave their barricades and Virginia infantry, winded by the heavy marching, dare not get close to the enemy cannon range. While Cherokian fire manage several casualties throughout the day, the concentrated shots of cannon by Virginia destroy several sections of the city stockades. The following day, these breaks in the walls are given several waves of attack by the infantry until they finally pierce the city limits. Once inside, line rank of the Virginian forces quickly spread as melee engagements break out indian hatchets and infantry bayonets. Though given a passionate fight, the Cherokia finally surrender on February 1st.

-As General Jackson’s army marched westward, General Lee’s massive army crosses the Ohio River into the Shawnee Confederacy to confront the joined Indian armies. Though snow and Indian bushwacking haunt the army as it marches through the foreign territory, confidence in their numbers keeps morale high as they march toward Prophetstown. The Virginians come across Pennsylvanian scouts who parley while the army camps at the invitation of General Lee. The scouts faithfully reveal none of the Pennsylvanian armies, but do pass information to the Virginians rumor of a peace negotiation between Cherokia and Pennsylvania is underway, putting further pressure on General Lee to complete his campaigning.

-Ten miles from Prophetstown, the Virginians finally discover the joint Indian armies. Initially caught off guard by the larger than expected numbers as Illinois militias make their debut in aid of their allies, the Virginians take a more hesitant approach as they form rank. The battle, lasting only a few hours, ends in a decisive Virginian victory as their numbers overwhelm the Indians as well as superior cannon. Their opponent routes from the battlefield quickly, allowing General Lee to capture what few cannon the Indians had as well as occupy the Shawnee capital. Throughout the time afterward however, bushwacking is common against Virginian army men who loiter too far or wander in fewer numbers around the town and its hinterland.

-As the Virginians occupy Unegvadisi and Prophetstown, they begin fortifying the “new Virginian lands” as well as have infantry crews begin carving out roads through the forest and fields to allow easy resupply from the east. Both generals becoming weary as Indian skirmishes and bushwacking becoming a common occurrence against both forces, slowing the construction down greatly. Further concern spreads throughout the armies as it is announced in mid March of a peace deal between Cherokia and Pennsylvania, bringing former enemies into a closer friendship.

-With news of great success out west, the government in Richmond begins planning infrastructure to the further regions. Funding for railroad construction west of the Appalachians is given bipartisanly though much of Lincoln’s native Kentucky gives him exclusive credit. A line between Richmond and Louisville begins work and nears completion by the end of the year.

-Large federal funding is given to the marshal office throughout the year to comb through the Appalachians and Kentucky region to hunt down any associates of the slave rebellion as well as arrest any abolitionist radicals. Any foreigner discovered is detained and question, though most are let go with no evidence against them. The growing control of the law in the land brings much comfort to locals however, while setting a clear deterrence to foreign interference in Virginia’s homeland.

-While the army continues to occupy the west, the Virginian navy follows New York’s lead and begins exploring the west coast of Africa. The Virginian flag is placed down on the Grain Coast, despite having little economic value. Despite this, Lincoln begins working on plans of colonization, mostly aimed at deporting unruly slaves and possibly freedmen as well. Orienting the colonization effort as “Africans are best at colonizing their heartland,” the House of Burgess passes funding for the colony though almost along party lines.

-Hoping to improve the economy of the region, President Lincoln summons the ambassadors from Maryland and Carolina to discuss collective tariff removal and an increase in trade. The idea of an economic bloc is passed, though the mention scares off Maryland from joining as they fear being stuck between the rising tensions between Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Carolinas happily accept, already having an increase in trade due to the blockade of Georgia. Despite Maryland’s refusal to formally join in the trade bloc, their legislature passes several bills to work with their southern neighbors in accordance with what was discussed.

-With the successful invasion of Cherokia and the putting down of the slave rebellion the year prior, Lincoln wins an easy reelection in November with promises to continue “God’s work throughout the Commonwealth.” In his inauguration speech, Lincoln decries the racial violence besetting Virginia in recent years as well as promises to confront abolitionists on their radicalism. The Virginian colony in Africa is spoken off as a promising solution for both sides, while expansion westward is heavily assured to be contained and bear fruit for all Virginians. The Whig candidate Jefferson Davis concedes defeat, but promises to continue conservative opposition against Lincoln in the House of Burgess. While the legislature remains in control of the conservative Whigs, the liberal Democratic-Republicans earn a historical number of seats, building up a sizable minority government that the Whigs no longer can ignore.



563306
United Venezuelan States - Amfleet
President: General José Antonio Páez
Governing Party: N/A
Capital: Caracas
Largest City: Caracas


-Entering into the second year of the national convention, political discourse in Caracas becomes hotter than the humid winter air. Throughout the year, delegates from throughout Venezuela begin to orbit one another into political and ideological camps. Transition President Páez takes note of this and offers his opinion that the delegates should form out of these groups political parties with standard platforms and solid ideologies. Despite this, most of the camps refuse to merge with one another, owing to personal ambitions of group leaders to be a potential party head despite almost identical ideologies. By December, three liberal leaning political camps remain while four conservative camps keep themselves divided. Páez hopes that these camps merge in the future to form governing political parties that may actually push Venezuela forward rather than their own ambitions.

-The clash between the political camps of similar ideologies rocks the conservative delegations more so than the liberal, as a flurry of newspapers decry petty personal disputes among their leaders as well as embarrassing stories of mistresses and gambling. Though many subjects of the stories proclaim their innocence or falsehood of the reportings, their political opponents easily latch onto them to promote themselves as a natural leader of the conservative movements, even if they themselves suffer from ruinous journalist articles.

-While liberals and conservatives in the national convention bicker throughout 1854, Páez continues to govern to the best of his abilities without need of the delegate’s consultation. While the general’s political leanings have been quiet for much of his time leading the country, he pushes a liberal measure regarding labor throughout the nation. A decree made in May, trade unions are legalized for workers of a variety of industries, with supplemental statues protecting laborers from losing their job from associating with a trade union. The decree immediately unites most of the conservative camps for a moment as majority of them are wealthy industrialists or plantation owners, that send a collective objection to the Transition President. To appease them, and perhaps quickly retract them back into dislodged partnership, Páez writes a second decree prescribing the national courts and its judges as the sole arbitrators between trade union and owner disputes.

-The Ministerio de Recursos Naturales, having announced the discovery of many ores and potential land exploitation in the south the previous year, enacts a homestead act to encourage more to move southward. Heavy requirements for purchase are made, however, including annual inspections by the Ministry up to 5 years after purchase to insure the owners are exploiting the resources there instead of just expanding their land ownership.

-Despite the hardships of moving oil extracted from the land and the laborious task of constructing railroads through the jungles, Venezuela finds an eager partner in purchasing the distilled kerosene across the Caribbean to Cherokia. In dealing with the Cherokee tribes, diplomats of Páez bring back news of the Panama Railroad project. Hoping to gain some financial benefits as well as potentially acquire the skills of jungle-railroad construction, large sums of revenue from the kerosene exports are immediately redirected to the Panama project, though many of the convention delegates fear doing so either is traitorously giving funds to Gran Colombia or potentially invoking conflict with Venezuela’s neighbor.

-Recognizing the gains made by Cuban revolutionaries in the past 18 months, Páez orders a number of military officers to sail to the island and help advise the rebellion to liberate their nation. General Narciso López arrives in Manzanillo in the fall along with his entourage of assistant advisers and immediately begins work on unifying the revolting peasants of the island politically as well as train them militarily, though much of his work experiences obstructions by Cuban General Ambrosio José Gonzalez whom is working hard to become a national leader of the fragmented rebellion.




Turn 6 Due Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019
 
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March 7th, 1854

On a railway line outside Cutonuga a dirty steam locomotive pulls into a station, a short whistle announces the arrival of the train before it dies down and the engine slows down. The rails on which it ran were laid mere months ago, but have already been worn.

Onboard, the injured and dying, the young and fearful, all of them feel shame. Loss after loss. Their cities fall by the day. What began in Jamestown two and a half centuries ago continues as their enemies march west. One boy, in a tattered uniform and with battered pride, sits on a crate with his head in his hands, moaning.

"It's all over" he repeats. He has been repeating it for hours.

Another mumbles out "I know we lost, you don't have to keep repeating it" before puffing on his pipe. "I suppose we will be negotiating surrender with them too."

On the station, a crowd is standing before a strange looking man standing on top of a cart. He wears a simple military uniform, looking the part of an officer.

When the locomotive finally grinds to a halt, he turns to state down at the boy with his head in his hands.

"Lift your head! Lift it high here for the whole world to see!"

The boy thought to himself that this was the moment. His public cruxifiction and humilitation. The whole weight of a nations loss bourne by his shoulders. He stayed still.

"Wars are not won by this! They are not won by retreats or losses! Over three thousand men were rescued from Unegavidsi by iron horses, by volunteers, those brave souls who yet still fight, for this is a victory in sight which we must never lose sight of. This does not excuse the fact that what just happened has been a colossal military disaster. Half our nation has been taken away from us. We must expect the Virginians to strike again, harder, and almost immediately. We will lose more. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight! We shall fight with growing confidence and strength against those who now bring forth the yoke of slavery to the land. We shall appeal to all corners of the world in this mighty struggle to defeat those who would rather see all the children of the earth in chains than to do a single days labour themselves."

Cherokian flags, Tribal banners, and even a red flag held by a grubby looking factoryman are all waved in unison.

"Stand up boys! You damned of the earth and prisoners of starvation! Stand up, for reason thunders in its volcano! This is the eruption of the end! We lose, or we fight to win ourselves a better world, one where every man can stand up proudly and high. Those who yet remain slaves, I urge this: Stand up! Stand up damn you! The world is about to change its foundation. We are all nothing, but if we stand up, we shall be all!"

The crowd cheers for a moment, with some of the loudest coming from a small number of freed slaves that somehow made their way down here. Their origin is irrelevant, their freedom is not.

"We shall fight in the hills and valleys, and in our towns and cities. In the fields and forests we shall too fight, no matter what the cost may be. We shall never surrender! And even if our nation shall fall, we will continue the work even under enemy occupation, until as such good time that the rest of the world volunteers to step forth, in the liberation of those who give up nothing but their chains when they rose."

A journalist nearby was hastily scribbling the speech down in a notepad. Next to it he had written "A envoyer à Paris, Londres et Berlin: tout de suite!" before making for the telegraphy office.

A boy sitting on the box slowly lifted his head up and looked at Abiaka, whose gaze bore right through him. A man then stood up.
 
Partition of Ecuador: Tratado de Quito
January 8th, 1855


564747

Gran Colombian dictator General Melo meets with Peruvian President Ramón Castilla, signing the Treaty of Quito
Sparked by the Venezuelan independence war, the conquest of Ecuador by Peru and Gran Colombian has come to its end. The Peruvians and Colombians fight a few skirmishes as their boundaries consume their smaller neighbor, but after several years of exhausted war, agree to a ceasefire. Leaders from both nations meet in the conquered city of Quito to discuss terms of their peace. President Castilla, eager to return home to bid for reelection and General Melo, eager to return home to solidify control of his country, hastily agree to partitioning Ecuador among themselves. The new national borders form more or less at where their armies had met, with little regard to the opinion of local Ecuadorians.

Upon signing the Treaty of Quito, peace finds itself along the Pacific. Sparing no time, General José María Melo leaves the day after signing to immediately return to Bogotá. Besides thoughts of drafting a new constitution for Gran Colombia to solidify and legitimize his rule, the dictator has a plethora of domestic issues to address. Such as numerous foreign interventions and even armed soldiers in the northern province of Panama, and the said region's growing desire for independence...
 
Colt's Patent Firearms Manufacturing Company Incorporates
1855


567504
Colt company advertisement found in many order catalogs throughout North America
Having had success designing and inventing pistols for the last several years, gunsmith Samuel Smith forgoes contracting other armories and factories to produce his growing popular firearms in favor of his own incorporated company, Colt's Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, in the firearm manufacturing heartland of Commonwealth of New England.

While Smith & Wesson firearms are popular among Anglo-American nations of the northeast as well as its growing commerce in the Republic of Quebec, Colt's patrons are found in the southern and western parts of North America. As soon as manufacturing sites become operational, the Republic of Texas orders a thousand pistols for its army. Though distance from customers and the current wars along the Atlantic coast hamper trade and export, this small but growing firearm company is expected to expand greatly in the future, perhaps even beyond North America.
 
Batalla de Santa Clara
May 5th, 1855

597611

Painting of Cuban nationalists charging demoralized Spanish troops
Supplied from anonymous money-lenders, confident with North American guns, and new Venezuelan political support, General Ambrosio José Gonzalez fires up the war for Cuban independence from Spain in the late spring of 1855. With half the island under nationalist control already, both sides mobilize to assert control over the largest island in the Caribbean. Despite Spain's introduction of fresh troops in Havana, they take time to organize both due to poor communications between the new arrivals and the island veteran commanders.

On May 5th, General Gonzalez takes advantage of Spain's military sloth by launching a surprise siege of the city of Santa Clara in the central region of the island. Preliminary skirmishes result in nationalists overrunning the unsuspecting Spanish troops, with some instances of Spain's regiments retreating without firing a shot. By the afternoon, the commanders in charge of the city regroup and retaliate against the nationalists militias, but fail to recover their own troop's morale for the counterattacks.

As the moon rose in the night sky, the entire Spanish garrison was in full retreat to Havana, allowing a fantastic victory for General Gonzalez and his militias. Occupation of Santa Clara is welcomed by most of the residents, as well as a revelation the city was being used as a preparation point for a future invasion into the nationalist holdings in the east. With the city overrun, many supplies captured, morale high and very little Spanish defenses between themselves and the capital of Havana, the world begins to anticipate another member of sovereign nations in the Americas arriving soon.
 

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