Anglo-Dutch union/connection

[Sean Swaby]

Inklings of Things to Come

Hmm...well people are reading, but still few comments, except from one or two avid readers (thanks G.Bone, really appreciate the support). Would be nice to know if others are reading other than by looking at how many times this has been viewed.

At any rate, here is yet another update:

1850- In North America, the USA is undergoing domestic troubles over the extension of slavery into soon to be newly admitted states and indeed over the abolition of slavery totally. Soon there are near-rebellious rumblings in Maryland and talk of secession by the Virginia government in order to establish an independent Commonwealth of Virginia. This talk eventually dies down however, when none of the new states are admitted for now, due to all of the slave states voting against admission. The Congress decides to put off the issue for 5 years. Meanwhile, the Whig Party (Opposition) was split into the New Whig Party (which was firmly against slavery) and the remnant Whig Party, which was now small and weak (due to membership apathy) and which decided to amalgamate with a few smaller third parties (as New Whig was the now the second major party), as the National Independent Party.
In the UPA, the President-General (P-G) had considered supporting the formation of a new independent Commonwealth of Virginia for several reasons:
1) it would gain the UPA a new pro-slavery neighbour
2) the small Virginia Commonwealth would most likely be easily influenced by the UPA and at some stage may even ask for incorporation into the UPA and thus realise an age-old dream (now fading into memory) of the reunion of the colonies that had once supported Britain during the American Revolution(s)
3) It would provide a buffer state between the USA and UPA. Even though the border was for the most part undisputed, the USA still retained irredentists in every political spectrum that called for the USA to conquer the UPA and bring the "rebellious states" or "Limey states" back into fold of "the rightful and great Republic of the United States of America". Talk like this from a number of US Congressmen and even a couple of their Presidential candidates (and even one President during a rally), only bred resentment and suspicion in the UPA.
However, the P-G was persuaded not to officially support the rebel delegates (who soon began focusing on other issues anyway) by his head of government (the UP govt. being modelled off the UK govt. more closely since 1785), the Chief Secretary (who fills the role of the UK's Premier). Chief Secretary (CS) Gibson outlined that support of the nascent Commonwealth of America would only increase tensions. CS Gibson advised that instead, the UPA should say nothing and wait until 1855 to see what happens then and take the road from there.
In South America, gold was discovered in the disputed territory between Venezuela and British Guiana. Soon Venezuelan miners began to prospect in the area. The British immediately extended their claim by 33,000 square miles once the territory was proven to be auriferous.
Further south in Brazil (still a part of Portugal), the new Prince and Regent of Brasil, Pedro, was now 13 and beginning to take on the duties of regent himself. Surrounded by advisors he began to institute reforms in business, agriculture and industry (though he himself did not institute all of them). In his youth (most of which was spent in Brasil, as he was taken there once his uncle Dom Pedro V (OTL Pedro II of Brazil) had declared him Regent of Brazil on his 3rd birthday), he had been heavily influenced by his Brazilian home and by now began to identify with his new "homeland" and its people, and it horrified his mother Maria, that Pedro sometimes slipped into the local dialect of Portuguese. Ever since 1823 there had been a growing independence movement and even the young Prince had not been completely isolated from the ideas of these movements during his formative years (though he was instructed that these movements were a danger by the time he was 10). Little Pedro would have a very interesting life ahead of him.
In Australia, Britain began some powers to the Australian colonies and at the same time, a new University is founded in Sydney (the University of Sydney), becoming the first and oldest university in Australia. This year actually saw the beginnings of some home-grown Australian sense of self-pride, but this of course was more of the pride that locals in say East Anglia would feel over their regions long history. It was by no means "Australian" as different from "British" and was certainly not separatist nationalist.
In China, a rebellion lead by a fanatical anti-governmental society is initiated, which would become known as the 1850 Nanking Rebellion (because that is where it started) or less popularly as the Tian Guo Rebellion.


Sorry that it is so short, but there is an Anglo-Venezuelan War coming up (I have the outline for it) but right now I must surrender my rights to the computer for my sister (who needs it to do work for school)

 

[G.Bone]

It's a lot less thicker than the other installments, but good. The only quibble that I have is with this:

General Haynau (known as the “Hyena†for his cruelties...

Couldn't you come up with a better name? Say...the Butcher or something along those lines. (it's just a small suggestion)

Otherwise, I like the focus on the USA/UPA and the other countries within Europe. Exactly how much of Asia is colonized?

 

[Sean Swaby]

"Couldn't you come up with a better name?"

There was a General Haynau in OTL and he was nicknamed "the Hyena" in England for his cruelty. In fact when he visited England he was roughed up by a mob.

 

[Sean Swaby]

Anglo-Venezuelan War

Continuing......

1851- Venezuela establishes a town (mainly a mining town) in the disputed area and the British government protests. The Venezuelans ignore the protest and continue to allow miners to enter the area (and the town) and continue to grant mining concessions to the any Venezuelan in the town. Venezuela maintains that the town is west of the British claimed Schomburgk line (and refuse to recognize the extension of the British claim in 1850). In London, correspondents receive reports from local reporters in the British Guianas which essentially hypes up the Venezuelan response and which also prominently feature reports of the few British miners who have attempted to enter the town being maltreated, refused mining concessions and in a couple cases even being locked up under accusations of illegally entering Venezuela and of being spies. These stories infuriate the readers back in the UK from Ireland to the Netherlands and soon there are calls in the press in editorials and petitions to rescue the imprisoned miners and punish Venezuela. The British government needed little encouraging after being rebuffed by Venezuela and soon threaten to use the Royal Navy and the Army unless Venezuela abides by the 1847 truce and either removes all miners from the town or gives equal rights and access to the town to British and Venezuelan miners. Venezuela continues to insist that the town is on Venezuelan territory and in March, the British go to war.
British regulars in British Guiana begin to march west towards the disputed border region and first set up base in Stabroek (OTL Georgetown, Guyana). They then strike out and cross the Essequibo river (which forms the border of Venezuela's claim) and continue heading west towards the town. After a few days march through the forest trails (some of which the British Army had to cut as they moved along), they arrived outside the town. Following the British Army were teams of engineers tasked with clearing out a recognizable road. Back in Stabroek, engineers even began constructing a railway along the path followed by the soldiers.
At the miner's town, the British Army surrounded the settlement and demanded that the town surrender or else face an assault. Venezuelan soldiers had made their way to the disputed town whilst tensions had flared and they refused to surrender..after all Caracas was preparing an army back on the banks of the Orinoco (at the town of Cuidad Bolivar) and this army was expected to reinforce the light defenders of the town. Thus the British invaded the town and began to rout out the Venezuelans. A number of the miners were captured and imprisoned, some (who had taken up arms) were either shot in combat or imprisoned as were the Venezuelan soldiers. The British army made it to the prison, whereupon the imprisoned British miners were freed. Within a few days, the town was flying the Union Jack and the few British miners were now the custodians of the town.
In the Caribbean Sea, 3 Venezuelan gunboats had left their base at Puerto Cabello (to the west of Caracas) upon the Venezuelan declaration of war and had sailed east. Within 5 days they had reached the Gulf of Paria and were in sight of Trinidad. Now came Venezuela's first answer. The Venezuelan gunships proceeded to bombard Port-of-Spain and a few other coastal towns. The Royal Navy, which was caught unawares in Port-of-Spain and had lost 5 ships as a result, retaliated in good measure by sinking 1 of the ships, damaging one to the point that it was immobile and lightly damaging the third before it escaped back towards Venezuela. On Trinidad, the locals were outraged and the British had no trouble mustering a volunteer force for army service. In short order, more ships arrived from Port Royal, Jamaica and soon the RN was assembling a small fleet. This sailed west towards the peninsula of Paria and landed British soldiers (some of them volunteers from Trinidad).
So began the war. The war soon escalated in scale as the British occupied not only the mining town, but the entire Paria peninsula and proceeded to rout the Venezuelans along the coast of the Gulf of Paria down to the Orinoco delta.
Still Venezuela refused to surrender and by late 1851 a British force coming directly from the UK made its way first to Port Royal to rest and refuel and then to Aruba. From there it went to shores of Venezuela closest to Caracas and established a blockade. Another RN force went west from Aruba to the the Gulf of Venezuela to establish another blockade of Lake Maracaibo which held (at the time) most of Venezuela's warships (Venezeula believing those ships would be safe in Lake Maracaibo). The RN successfully blockaded the Lake (which opens into the Gulf of Venezuela), but only by sinking those Venezuelan ships at its entrance. This of course prevented its own entry into the Lake to destroy the rest of the Venezuelan fleet, and the RN suffered a number of losses from the shore guns at the city of Maracaibo.
Off Caracas, the British began bombarding Caracas and the nearby villages and landed soldiers at the fishing villages of Maiquetia and La Guaria. Of course Caracas was on the hills above these villages and its defenders had a fairly easy time of bombarding the British soldiers below (who could hardly hide from the Venezuelan artillery. The deterioration of the British Army (back in Europe at least) showed itself by the poor conduct of the campaign to take Caracas. The general in charge of the campaign delayed much too long to secure the small fishing villages and in order to land a large amount of soldiers (some coming from Jamaica and British Honduras) and soon the Venezuelans had begun to set up rings of defences around their capital.
Much further north in the British North American colonies, some young men decided to join up and serve with the army's campaign in Venezuela. After all, they were only told of the glory that would befall them, not the bullets and the treasures that would await them (gold being the main treasure and the fact that the British government was rumoured to allow soldiers who volunteered to be able to stay in Guiana and stake out a plot of land and have a mining concession), not the dengue fever, typhus, pneumonia and cholera.
By the start of 1852 the British were engaged in a siege of Caracas from the north, but had reached no further than where they were in December 1851. In the mining town at the centre of this storm, the British had lost control to a Venezuelan army coming from Cuidad Bolivar, but after receiving more reinforcements from the newly built road and railway they managed to retake the town (using overwhelming force) and even pushed on to Cuidad Bolivar, which they raided in short order and cut off from the rest of Venezuela by destroying its bridges across the Orinoco.
By mid-1852, the British government had had enough of this incredibly long war (considering that it was Venezuela they were fighting and not France) and authorised another expeditionary force, which this time contained the volunteers from North America. This second British force made its way to Antigua and then to Trinidad and from there went west to the conquer the Venezuelan islands constituting the province of Nueva Esparta (Isla Margarita and Isla la Tortuga). Having done so in a few days, the force set out westwards again and landed the tiny village of Rio Chico (around 50-70 miles east of Caracas) and occupied the village very quickly. The British then advanced along the valley of a small river, the Rio Chico until the reached Los Teques a few miles south of Caracas. The only problem now was that Los Teques was on the high ground and Caracas was over the summit of the hill and the Venezuelans had an excellent view of the British and began shelling them. The second British force fought hard and took Los Teques after suffering much loss (even after being hit by a landslide caused by all the shelling and countershelling, the landslide taking a good number of soldiers, both Venezuelan and British). Los Teques had been part of the defensive line around Caracas and the British had now broken through it. Before the Venezuelans could prepare another line of defence the British assaulted Caracas and soon heavy fighting occurred in the south of the city.
The first British force which was besieging Caracas to the north began to encircle Caracas to link up with the second British army and soon, it too managed to breakthrough one of the defensive lines to the north.
With the British coming into Caracas from the north and the south and threatening to occupy the Presidential palace and Parliament, the Venezuelan government soon decided that its people had suffered enough under the siege and sought peace terms in November 1852. The British had a fairly simple peace plan: Venezuela recognize the entire British claim and dismantle its navy and demilitarize the peninsula of Paria and the area south of its Orinoco river (not the entire region, just Bolivar province, so essentially the country's southeast area bordering British Guiana).
Venezuela accepted the terms in the 1853 Treaty of Stabroek.

1853- The Anglo-Venezuelan War showed the faults that had developed in the British Army since 1815 and the government decided that these faults had to be rectified. It was clear that the army needed to be modernized and overhauled and the government began to proceed with this task.
The suffering endured by soldiers on both sides of the war due to disease had engendered widespread concern and as a result improvements were made in the nursing and medical services.


Otherwise:

1851- Gold is discovered in Australia, precipitating a gold rush.
In the UK a population census of all the people was held.

1852-1854- Russo-Turkish War. This particular war in the series was started by Turkey's refusal to grant Russia even more concessions including a virtual protectorate over all of of the Sultan's Orthodox Christian subjects. France was engaged in Algeria and hardly cared, while Britain was still engaged in a war with Venezuela and see the rather disappointing show her army was putting on, held no illusions about conducting a war with Russia at the same time. Britain however did send the Royal Navy to anchor off Constantinople to prevent the Russia from getting any ideas about dismembering the Ottoman Empire. Russia was fairly successful in the war, although her army too needed overhauling (and the Tsar saw it first hand too when he led the army into Moldavia and Wallachia and then heard about its performance in northern Bulgaria and in Serbia). Russia secured in the Congress of European powers convened in Berlin the annexation of some minor territory in Asia from the Ottomans and more autonomy for Moldavia and Wallachia and Serbia. Greece had joined the war in 1853 and had secured even more border territory from Turkey as a result at the Congress, but did not acquire Cyprus as was hoped (Cyprus had rebelled in favour of joining Greece during the war, but the Ottomans put down the revolt) and the Tsar secured no title for himself as the Protector of the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire. Instead, the Treaty of Berlin required that the Sultan allow religious freedom and that local Orthodox clergy be allowed to administer Orthodox holy sites in the Ottoman Empire alongside the Ottoman government.



Oh, I knew I was forgetting something..the succession to George I of the United Kingdom. Have to skip back a bit, but not really a problem:

1836-Victoria meets her cousins Albert and Ernest (on her mother's side, the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family) and finds Albert very attractive. Her uncles Leopold (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and King Adolphus of Belgium (of the House of Hannover) encourage a union between Albert and Victoria which finally occurred in 1839 with the marriage of Victoria and Albert (with her proposing of course since by then she was Queen).

1837- George I of the United Kingdom and the IV of Hannover dies at age 75. His brother Edward (father of Victoria) had died of influenza in 1828 and now Victoria was his heir to the British throne. Of course the Salic Law forbade Victoria from becoming ruler of Hannover and that role passed on to her uncle Ernst. So, in London, Victoria at age 18 is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom whilst in Hannover her uncle assumes the title of Elector of Hannover.

1840- The first of many children is born to Victoria and Albert. The newborn girl is name Beatrix

1841- The second child to Victoria and Albert is born and is their first son, named Edward in honour of Victoria's late father.



Anyway, I don't have time for any more right now, but I shall continue. There should be updates in North America and Europe (especially with Prussia, Austria, Saxony and maybe Italy (the peninsula for now)) and maybe Australasia.

 

[Sean Swaby]

Always believing maps and images to be good for the eyes to take away from the sea of words when ones eye muscles gets tired:

Map of Central America in 1850 (source is www.zum.de/whkmla/)

 

[G.Bone]

keep writing!

 

[Archangel Michael]

Good job, and nice maps!

 

[Sean Swaby]

Thanks all, good to see more of the readership. And to add even more to this world I am writing, here is the new Union Jack that was made after 1815. Back on the old board, there was a mini-debate about the flag. I essentially thought the Union Jack would remain unchanged, but others said that since the Netherlands was joining by an Act of Union like Scotland and Ireland (and this act occurring after the Acts of Union with Scotland and Ireland), then the Netherlands would have to be represented in the flag in some manner. Now mixing the Dutch tricolour of red (or orange), white and blue, with the Union Jack of red, white and blue would be difficult by no mean feat. I could have used the OTL old South African flag and just removed the two Boer flags in the white stripe and enlarged the Union Jack (and put it the correct way not backwards like in that flag), but that would seem to be giving too much to the Dutch in the union, whereas it was really Scotland and England which formed the basis of the original union (and Scotland more so, hence St. George's Cross overlaying St. Andrew's cross).
So here's the aesthetic alternative I came up with:
the orange tulip is of course representative of the Netherlands [and the House of Orange]

 

[fortyseven]

You could've used an orange for the House of Orange.

I read it on the old board. I plan to re-read it and read the continuance. Nice flags and maps.

 

[G.Bone]

Why a heart?

 

[Sean Swaby]

Why a heart?

It's not a heart, it's a stylized tulip I lifted from the present day flag of Friesland (a province of the Netherlands) and which I changed to an orange colour. Tulips are representative of the Netherlands as whole. Just like those windmills and clogs.

 

[Sean Swaby]

And here is the new royal flag of France after 1830 (see TL for the events):
It is the old republican flag with the fluer-du-lys (lily flower) in the centre white stripe for the monarchy.

 

[Faeelin]

It's not a heart, it's a stylized tulip I lifted from the present day flag of Friesland (a province of the Netherlands) and which I changed to an orange colour. Tulips are representative of the Netherlands as whole. Just like those windmills and clogs.

I'd suggest trying to rather incorporate the actual flag of holland instead. That's just me, and I find the TL quite good.

 

[Sean Swaby]

Fellas, worry not, this hasn't died, I am just trying to hash out the 1854-1858 period. We are now approaching the unification of Italy (under slightly different circumstances and with a "greater Italy" so to speak) and trouble in Germany.

I hope to have something up later tonight or maybe tomorrow night.

With regards to Africa, I have an idea about the colonization. I don't think there will be a Scramble, but then again what has so far kept the Europeans to the coast has been disease (mainly malaria), but with the discovery of medicine to overcome malaria then European expansion inland should experience a rapid upswing. I can see France, the UK (of course), Italy, Portugal and Spain (to a small extent) being colonizers (Germany as a colonizer is dependent upon unification, which is not a certainty in the rough outline I have).
Does anyone have any ideas about which countries might colonize where? Might it be rather similar to OTL (keep in mind the British are going to get started on a Suez Canal which will be linked to the Nile so they will be involved in Egypt and the Nile) or might it be different?

ANY and ALL opinions and comments welcome.

Oh and Faeelin, trying to incorporate the actual flag of holland (of which I do think there was one at the time per se, just the heraldic colours of Holland which were yellow and red) is very difficult and would make for an ugly flag. If you meant the Dutch flag in general (the orange/red-white-blue tricolour) then that would also be difficult as mixing tricolours and crosses never results in a good flag (it would either be confusing as hell or just plain unsightly/an eye sore) unless the crosses end up within the tricolour as in the old South African flag and from what I gather, the British Union Flag is supposed to be aesthetic and represent some amount of equality in the union. Placing the entire old union flag with another flag would seem to indicate that the Netherlands now rules Britain or alternately people would probably mistake the flag to be the sub-national Netherlands flag representing that the Netherlands is ruled by the UK (hence the Union Flag in the white stripe with the same function as the union flag in the various colonial ensign flags) but is autonomous, rather than seeing the flag of the entire UK. But anyway, I'll probably put up that flag to show you and everyone else what it is like and get feedback.

 

[Admiral Matt]

Well, I think plenty of people see the UK flag as ugly in OTL. I, for one, think it would look much better without Ireland's addition. And until people got used to it, the same went for the US flag (and I'm sure it still does, outside the states). What's a little more ugly?

 

[Sean Swaby]

Hmm..now where were we...ah yess!!...

Not forgetting the far east in this next installment:

1852- In Japan the Tokugawa Shogunate reminds the Europeans of his ban against them upon pain of death by executing a Portuguese mission that sails into Nagasaki harbour. Portugal contemplates going to war over the incident but in a few months the matter has been blown away with the divine winds of Japan and the Portuguese choose to forget and ignore Japan. Soon Japan becomes one of those mysterious places in European geographic knowledge and is soon dubbed "The Forgotten Kingdom" or "The Lost Kingdom" and less popularly "The Hermit Kingdom". With Japan's isolation continuing from 1837 the Japanese now begin to fall far behind Europe and the Shogunate even bans Japanese from travelling outside of Japan itself in order to prevent them from being corrupted by contact with the Europeans, who in the opinion of the Shogunate are "infesting the seas of Asia like rats in the rice paddies". The continued isolation of Japan is a disappointment to the Russians who had begun to expand towards the Pacific in part to gain better access to trade with Japanhowever this did not slow Russian expansion as the Russians were still more than keen to obtain a warm water port and "ocean-front property" along the Pacific. If anything the isolation of Japan actually removed a burden to Russian expansion by allowing the Russians unimpeded access to Sakhalin and the Kurile Islands. Aided by the territory north and west of the Amur river which would be obtained from China in this year (not 1858 as in OTL) the Russians successfully claim all of Sakhalin and the Kuriles by 1855 (except the four small islands closest to Hokkaido) after the Tokugawa orders all Japanese to remain in the Home Islands (and Sakhalin, which was previously a Russo-Japanese condominium, was not one of them).

1853- In Brazil, Maria, the mother of Regent Pedro dies and Regent Pedro now begins to assume full authority as he can no longer rely on advice from his mother. By now he is 16 and with his hormones raging begins to become a bit more confrontational when trying to get things his way (which many a time he interpretted as being "Brazil's way") and soon enough he had had one or two arguments (minor really) with his uncle, the King (Dom Pedro V) back in Lisbon. Mostly however, Regent Pedro continued his rather popular rule and spoke the Brazilian dialect of Portuguese (to the annoyance of his advisors from Lisbon, to whom he now began to pay less attention to).
In the Pacific, the French annex New Caledonia.

1854- In August King Anton (Anthony Clement) I of Saxony dies and is succeeded by Frederich August who becomes Frederich August II. In the cities of Dresden and Leipzig in Prussia the denizens hold celebrations for what they consider to be their King as they still consider the cities to be rightfully a part of the Kingdom of Saxony. The celebrations are held in tandem with street demonstrations, the occasional roadblocks and a few riots against Prussia. A similar situation had arisen in 1827 upon the ascession of King Anton I, but the time was rather too close to the Treaty of Paris and the Congress of Vienna for anything meaningful to happen. However it did result in the Prussians placing both cities under martial law at the time and basically occupying the cities. Now however, with a (yet another) new King in Saxony and with many changes having happened in Europe since 1814 and with the 1847-1848 Revolutions behind them, the denizens were decidedly more vocal and physical in their calls for the return of the cities to Saxony.
King Frederich August II had even called on Prussia to return the ancient capital of Dresden to Saxony upon his ascession and this only further fuelled the crowds on the streets.
Austria had particularly opposed the annexation of Dresden to Prussia in 1814 and now supported Saxony's call for a new Congress of the European powers to convene to re-open the issue of Dresden and possibly Leipzig. Prussia was indignant at these proposals and rejected them outright and sent her soldiers into the two cities to "clear up the trouble" as she had doen when riots occurred there in 1827, 1836, 1847, 1848 and 1850. Austria now called on Prussia to remove its army from the cities and again submit the issue to a Congress of Europe, and on the latter issue was supported by most of the German Confederation. However, Prussia rebuffed Austria's calls, stating that the matter was final as of 1814 and the cities were now as "Prussian as Berlin or Brandenburg" and Prussia began mobilizing her army as a preparatory measure. Austria now threatened war if Prussia did not demobilize, which she did not, and so war it was.
Hoping to get in a first quick victory, Prussia made a small incursion into Saxony, but this was repulsed by the local Saxon army (which was joined in short order by the Austrian army which Austria claimed was acting on behalf of the Confederation). Shortly thereafter the Saxons and Austrians occupied Dresden and Leipzig, much to the joy of the locals. The Saxon army in Leipzig had even moved further north as Saxony now hoped to regain some of the 60+% of the territory she had lost in 1814 while the getting was good.
Prussia soon recoupled and routed the Saxons north of Leipzig and then pounded into Leipzig itself, sending the Austro-Saxon armies reeling. The Prussians also recaptured Dresden (after a bout of heavy fighting in and for the city) and soon pursued the retreating Austro-Saxon armies into Saxony.
In Italy, Piedmont's PM Borghini (who had Count Cavour (himself in government) as a trusted friend and unofficial advisor) took the unique opportunity of Austria's distraction and suggested that Habsburg North Italy to reinstitute the liberal reforms of 1848 which it had revoked in 1850 (with the aid of Austrian soldiers) and even suggested that the Habsburg prince grant even more reforms for his subjects. The Habsburg prince's immediate refusal stirred liberals in North Italy to demand those very reforms (as well as local constitutions) via protests. The prince sent in the army to quickly deal with the protestors (taking in mind Prussia's example and Austria's advice), but soon even the soldiers themselves showed signs of mutiny and the prince fled to Lombardy, Austria.
Austria, meanwhile also had to accomodate another exile in the form of Frederich August II, who had fled Saxony when the Prussians overran it. King Frederich August II had taken refuge in Bohemia and the Prussians duly followed him there, invading Bohemia and rapidly approaching Prague.

1855- The Prusso-Saxon war (sometimes called the War of the Two Cities) continues as the Prussians advance into Bohemia. By now, Russia has taken notice but having recently concluded a war with Turkey and being a bit more interested in the far east at the present continues her neutrality. The UK continues her neutrality but makes it known that she will not stand by if either belligerent seems as though it will completely destroy the other. France takes a similar stance as she is now interested in the Pacific and Algeria.
In North Italy a provisional government is declared and the duchies of Tuscany, Parma, Modena and Lucca are re-established and shortly thereafter a plebiscite is held in each to determine its future.In each an overwhelming majority had voted for union with Piedmont, which was quickly granted as all 4 duchies were absorbed into the Kingdom of Piedmont with the Piedmont King Victor Emmanuel II assuming the title of Duke for each of the Duchies.
Austria now threatened Piedmont with war, but with Prussia pressing on into Bohemia and a decent portion of the Austrian army stuck in occupation/garrison duty of Hungary (after 1848), Austria did not have much to draw on to attack Piedmont. Worse still, the army of the the former Habsburg principality of North Italy was now under the command of Piedmont. Piedmont could see that she held a good hand and offered Austria the option of demobilizing her own army and guaranteeing the frontier in Lombardy. Of course, Austria could not accept this (the prince wishing to regain his principality and Austria not wishing to lose influence in Italy) and refused, so Piedmont declared war Austria.
By mid 1855 Prague had been occupied by the Prussians and they were pushing on towards Austria proper, while the Piedmontese had invaded Lombardy. British sympathy for Italy now precluded any hope of the UK intervening on Austria's side and Piedmont had signed an neutrality pact with Russia since the last Russo-Turkish war, so Russia was to just going to sit pretty. Only France seemed more likely to intervene, but her secret demands on Austria (the restoration of Alsace and for the annexation of small sections of Baden plus the Rhineland up to the Mainz and basically control over Baden and Wurttemburg , plus a voice in the German Confederation (as the govt. of Alsace)) were too high a price for Austria and she never replied to France. At any rate the Prussians had experienced some difficulty south of Prague and it looked like Austria might be able to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat. However, the Piedmontese army had performed admirably (though with a lot of losses and had pushed right across Lombardy (having had Parma and Modena as a base for part of the invasion of Lombardy plus the former army of North Italy had helped) and had managed to surround Venice (made easier after obtaining the Romagna from the Papal States in late 1854 via the local populace rising up in favour of Piedmont).
Austria decided to accept defeat in Italy if only to stave off defeat in Germany and Bohemia (and the possibility of a Prussian occupation of Vienna) and signed the Treaty of Florence in 1855 recognizing Piedmont's gains (Lombardy, Venetia, North Italy and Romagna) and Austria's exclusion from the Italian Confederation. Buoyed now with troops from the new frontier with Piedmont, the Austro-Saxon defenders managed to fight the Prussians to a convincing standstill in southern Bohemia. Knowing that their army's advance would be even further hindered (or even reversed) by Austrian reinforcements from Hungary, Prussia suggested a conference of the European powers. In Belgium, the various European delegates met and Prussia made her demands, as did Saxony and Austria (whose demands were now basically paper thin due to the fact that Prussia now occupied all of Saxony). Prussia offered to restore Saxony to its pre-war borders (with a few minor adjustments in favour of Prussia), but insisted that Saxony be demoted from a Kingdom to a Grand Duchy and that Saxony pay tribute to the Prussian King indefinitely. Austria and Saxony (having little choice) accepted the border proposal and even accepted the demotion of Saxony to Grand Duchy status but opposed the turning of Saxony into a Prussian tributary and the rest of the Congress hammered out a compromise (the British and Russians were especially disinterested and wished the conference to be over quickly) in which Saxony pays tribute for 5 years. Finally this was accepted and Prussia, Saxony and Austria signed the Treaty of Brussells signifying the end to the 1854-1855 Prusso-Saxon war.

 

[G.Bone]

Prussia and Austria are the far east?

Anyway- pretty good! I still would like to know more what is going on in the UK and N. America. How is Hawaii coming along?

 

[Sean Swaby]

Prussia and Austria are the far east?

No, where did you get that idea from?

Anyway- pretty good! I still would like to know more what is going on in the UK and N. America. How is Hawaii coming along?

Soon, soon.

Anyway, bumping it up a bit, here is a map of Australia 1851

 

[Sean Swaby]

continuing

In the Americas:

1855- In North America the USA is now experiencing the trouble it had put off for 5 years when the admission of new states can no longer be put off. The territories of Illinoia (OTL northern Illinois) and Wisconsin had applied from 1850, but the southern slave states had voted against admission to the Union. By now it was obvious that the two states should be allowed in and the delegates to Congress from the slave states were now becoming almost pariah due to their intransigence. Congressional elections in this year had brought a majority to both Houses for the National Independent Party, the Party which also held the Presidency since 1853. The NIP wasabolitionist in outlook and now a new bill allowing for the admission of the the two territories also provided for the gradual emancipation of all slaves throughout the USA. The vote in Congress was again defeated by Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi (OTL southern Illinois) and Maryland (Delaware had voted for admission this time) and the proposed manumission amendment to the bill began to raise hairs on the heads of governments of Virginia and Kentucky. After the defeat of the bill, Virginia's delegates walked out of Congress and in April, Virginia declared itself a sovereign state, the Commonwealth of Virginia, citing that "its continued association with the rest of the Union had become untenable due to vast differences in the visions for the future". Following quickly on the heels of Virginia, Kentucky also declared itself an independent Commonwealth and its government then immediately entered into negotiations with Virginia to form a "Federal Commonwealth of America". When Mississippi and Maryland also looked set to withdraw from the Union and join the nascent Federal Commonwealth of America (FCA), The Union government suspended the governments of those states. The Union govt. the quickly sent Union soldiers into Richmond (and Louisville) to break up the Rebel govt. The Union Army faced a fair amount of resistance from the Virginia and Kentucky state militias (terming themselves the "Federal Army") but soon overcame them and occupied Richmond and Louisville. Martial law was enacted in both Virginia and Kentucky and their governments suspended.
Taking the opportunity of having the main opposing states now basically muzzled the NIP reintroduced the originally defeated bill, which now unsurprisingly passed completely and allowed Illinoia and Wisconsin into the Union as full states. One change made to the bill was for the immediate emancipation of all slaves in those areas which were or had recently rebelled against the United States government (as some areas of Virginia and Kentucky were still not under Union control and had set up "provisional governments") and for the gradual emancipation within 2 years of all other slaves.
The UPA in all this had initially sent out secret messages of support to the Virginian and Kentuckian Commonwealths and had secretly given its full support to the formation of an FCA. Indeed, the UP govt. was even preparing a draft treaty of friendship and free trade, however, before it could be completed and before the UPA could recognize the FCA, the Union had acted to break up the Federal Commonwealth's government. Worse still, a newly experienced Union Army was now on the border with the UPA in its occupation duties. Many in the UPA began to suspect that the Union Army would not only be used for occupation but also for conquest.
To the Northwest in Oregon country, the local British settlers north of the Columbia river had begun arguing, and indeed some had begun rioting, for their own colony. This matter would not be resolved until 1856.

1856- A Commission sent by Britain to Oregon country sent back a report recommending the establishment of a new colony north of the Columbia river. The Report's recommendation was taken up and Queen Victoria and the Parliament in Westminister established the Colony of Columbia by an Act in Parliament. Meanwhile, in the east a number of politicians began advocating the creation of a Confederation of the colonies. Some of these politicians were the descendants of Loyalists and had heard stories from their fathers about how their grandfathers and great-grandfathers had fought on the Loyalist side and/or had advocated the Albany Plan of Union at the Congress. Those first Loyalists had passed on the ideal of a union to their sons and now they in turn had passed on the idea and the ideal to their own sons. Though they advocated such an idea it was not to be for now, even though in New Caledonia (OTL New Brunswick) which had basically been formed as a new colony for the Loyalists out of Nova Scotia, practically all the politicians and most of the population favoured a confederation of the colonies.

1858- After years of peace and the growing threat of Mexican domination (due in part to Mexico's good fortune in gold), as well as religious reconciliation, the various Mayan community-states formed a federated state: Mayalum (or Mayaluum) [which means "land or soil of the Maya"} with its capital at Chan Santa Cruz.

I would much love to continue writing, but I have class in an hour and need to get ready to go, so...when next I post, you all should be able to read about the Suez Canal, Egypt and her relations to Britain and Egypt and [hopefully], a war in Germany involving the UK...

 

[bill_bruno]

Tokugawa

Very good. However, the Tokugawa Shogunate started in the early 1600s OTL, not in 1837. By that latter date, the Japanese policy of exclusion was a couple of centuries old.