Balance of Power

[lordroel]

Jun 11, 2018 17:55:53 GMT bytor said:

I don't know if Limburg, having been split from The Netherlands, would have a different inheritance law like Luxembourg did. Also, there's the possible butterflies from the formation of the Hessian Republic in 1850 that might make Adolphe not succeed as Grand Duke in Luxembourg.

Well i tried to find some info, it seems there might be none, but then again, its is your creation, so everything can happen.

[bytor]

Province of Athabasca, Dominion of Canada

Created in 1905 from the Northwest Territories



Province of Columbia, the sibling to the province of New Caledonia that I posted previously.

[lordroel]

Jun 30, 2018 14:01:52 GMT bytor said:

Province of Athabasca, Dominion of Canada

Created in 1905 from the Northwest Territories



Province of Columbia, the sibling to the province of New Caledonia that I posted previously.

Nice flags.

[bytor]

So the disk array in my NAS died a few months ago and I lost a lot of data, mostly the timeline map and the fake Wikipedia articles for some of the countries. Bore that happened, I was just about to make public a website where one could view that timeline map and associated Fakeypedia articles. Anyways, this is what I've reconstructed so far of the timeline map to scroll through though I haven't added the links to the Fakeypedia.

Balance of Power

[bytor]

So I have decided to do a small bit of retconning with respect to North America.

First, I've decided that Chiapas, which seceded on it's own and not just as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain - like how the Captaincy of Guatemala (Central America) did so as well - was important enough to show on the maps even OTL it didn't amount to much. Chiapas had three main factions - Mexican Union, Central American/Guatemalan Union, and sovereigntists. When the provisional government in Guatemala City decided to join with the Mexican Empire in 1822, that was acceptable with the unionist factions in Chiapas though there was much opposition from the sovereigntist factions. Depending on whom you asked, Chiapas was either independent or part of Mexico with the government in Ciudad Real seeming unable to make definitive statement either way. In this ATL, de Iturbide never makes the proclamation that Chiapas is part of Mexico. When pressed to do so by the highland factions that had been Mexican Unionists, de Iturbide's response was "Chiapas quien?". As a result, when de Iturbide abdicates and Guatemala City once again declares independence in 1823, Ciudad Real also declares Chipanecan independence, but by this time the highland factions had mostly switch allegiance to the sovereigntists or Guatemalan Unionists.

Second, because a prime difference of this ATL is Britain and France being more internationally activist and interventionalist, I decided that their actions in South America which resulted in Greater Peru and Riograndense mean it would be very odd if they didn't also stick their hands into the pie in Central America since this era was the beginning of export-oriented phase of the hacienda/estancia system all across Latin America, whether it was coffee, bananas, guano, or whatever. Not only that, but Britain has direct interests in Belize and Miskito Coast to protect and that makes no intervention doubly out of character. So the carrot & stick "be stable so we can trade with you or else" that got applied to Peru-Bolivia will happen here, too, but I haven't worked out the exact details. Central America as a country will survive, probably including Chiapas, but I need to do more reading on the exact issues of why Central America fell apart beyond the Wikipedia entries.

[stevep]

Oct 22, 2018 16:24:59 GMT bytor said:

So I have decided to do a small bit of retconning with respect to North America.

First, I've decided that Chiapas, which seceded on it's own and not just as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain - like how the Captaincy of Guatemala (Central America) did so as well - was important enough to show on the maps even OTL it didn't amount to much. Chiapas had three main factions - Mexican Union, Central American/Guatemalan Union, and sovereigntists. When the provisional government in Guatemala City decided to join with the Mexican Empire in 1822, that was acceptable with the unionist factions in Chiapas though there was much opposition from the sovereigntist factions. Depending on whom you asked, Chiapas was either independent or part of Mexico with the government in Ciudad Real seeming unable to make definitive statement either way. In this ATL, de Iturbide never makes the proclamation that Chiapas is part of Mexico. When pressed to do so by the highland factions that had been Mexican Unionists, de Iturbide's response was "Chiapas quien?". As a result, when de Iturbide abdicates and Guatemala City once again declares independence in 1823, Ciudad Real also declares Chipanecan independence, but by this time the highland factions had mostly switch allegiance to the sovereigntists or Guatemalan Unionists.

Second, because a prime difference of this ATL is Britain and France being more internationally activist and interventionalist, I decided that their actions in South America which resulted in Greater Peru and Riograndense mean it would be very odd if they didn't also stick their hands into the pie in Central America since this era was the beginning of export-oriented phase of the hacienda/estancia system all across Latin America, whether it was coffee, bananas, guano, or whatever. Not only that, but Britain has direct interests in Belize and Miskito Coast to protect and that makes no intervention doubly out of character. So the carrot & stick "be stable so we can trade with you or else" that got applied to Peru-Bolivia will happen here, too, but I haven't worked out the exact details. Central America as a country will survive, probably including Chiapas, but I need to do more reading on the exact issues of why Central America fell apart beyond the Wikipedia entries.

  That does seem likely in terms that Britain and to a lesser degree France have the funds and technology to help them develop and also British probably has a good press as its the power that opposed a threatened conservative intervention to restore Spanish colonial rule.  Possibly the limiting factor would be that those states are so small their less attractive compared to the larger states and hence markets in S America.  An exception of importance would be if someone tried to put a canal through to link the Pacific and Atlantic, most likely through Nicaragua.  There is likely to still be US attempts to intervene in the region, both by the government and the assorted filibusterers.

[bytor]

Provincial flag of Cape Breton, of of the 5 founding provinces of Canada on July 1st, 1867.

The provincial shield is the old Scottish royal arms as an escutcheon on a St Andrews cross, both modified with the traditional green and gold of Cape Breton seen in OTL flags and the Cape Breton tartan.

[bytor]

The Red River Rebellion and the Opening of Western Canada, Part I

In 1868 the British Empire resolved to sell Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory to the fledgling nation of Canada which surprised and scared the Métis inhabitants, especially those living in the Red River Colony which had been established in 1812. The government of Canada appointed the Minister of Public Works and notoriously anti-French politician William McDougall to be the first lieutenant-governor of North-West Territories when the transfer from the Hudson’s Bay Company via the British Crown would be finalised, initially set for December 1st, 1869. When McDougall sent ahead a team to survey the Colony, it’s arrival in August of 1869, commanded by Colonel John Stoughton Dennis provoked more anxiety with the Métis as well as suspicion among the settlers, both anglophone and francophone. Land in the Colony was mostly organised in a variant of the New France seigneurial system because of the Métis heritage and the large percentage of Francophone settlers.

Newly returned to the Colony after a decade of instruction and European-styles schools in Montréal was young Métis man named Louis Riel gave an impassioned speech denouncing the survey and came to prominence as a member of the resistance to the transfer of Rupert’s Land to Canada. In October he organised a disruption of the survey work and with many of his fellow resisters and shortly thereafter he and John Bruce helped form the National Committee of the Métis which issued a statement saying that if the Government of Canada attempted to assume authority over Rupert’s land without negotiating with the Métis it would be contested. In November, NCM members under the direction of Ambroise-Dydime Lépine met Lieutenant-Governor-designate McDougall at the US border and denied him entry into the North-Western Territory, though he was eventually allowed to proceed to Fort Garry.

Also in November, Riel and the NCM called the anglophone Setters to a convention with the Métis and Francophones to discuss future directions of the Red River Colony. Most of the colony was favourable to and supportive of the Métis positions, except for a minority of Anglophones that, being somewhat hostile to Catholicism and the Métis culture, welcomed becoming part of Canada. By the start of December, the convention had produced a list of rights that were to be demanded as a condition of union with Canada. The hostile minority loosely came together under the banner of the Canadian Party headed by locals John Christian Schultz and Charles Mair, as well Colonel Dennis and Major Charles Boulton who had arrived with the surveying party four month prior. McDougall attempted to assert his authority and instructed Dennis to raise a brigade of armed men, but the call was ignored by all francophone settlers as well as most of the anglophones as they were sympathetic to Riel even if they did not fully support everything on his list of rights. Schultz was able to recruit fifty men who had ties to the Canadian Party, but that was all. When the NCM heard of this contingent, they surrounded Schultz’s warehouse in Fort Garry where the men had gathered and waited until they surrendered peacefully. Around this same time, McDougall wrote to the authorities to request that 1,000 British troops be sent on the authority of Queen Victoria. Embarrassingly, the Monarch herself responded saying that she would prefer a more amicable settlement to the issue of jurisdiction.

The next day the NMC declared a provisional government and constituted the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia with 28 representatives and an executive council with a few anglophone Settlers as part of both new bodies. The day after that, Major Boulton, and several others from Schultz’s group managed to escape from their detention in Upper Fort Garry and fled to Portage La Prairie, some 50 miles to the west.

Ottawa, hearing of the unrest in the Red River Colony, declared that amnesty will be given for all rebels who lay down their arms and sent three emissaries to deal with the problem: Donald Smith, an HBC representative, Colonel Charles de Salaberry, and Jean-Baptiste Thibault, a Catholic priest. They arrived in Fort Garry two days after Christmas, on the same day that Riel was elected by the NCM to replace John Bruce as president of the provisional government. After two days of meetings in early January of 1870, Smith came to the conclusion that it was useless to negotiate with the NCM and attempted to take the Canadian position directly to the people. Riel, while acting as translator in the public meetings held on the 19th and 20th, by suggesting a convention of forty, evenly divided between anglophones and francophones. A committee of six outlined a new, more comprehensive list of rights which the convention agreed upon and presented to the three emissaries on the 7th of February. Colonel de Salaberry suggested that representatives be sent to Ottawa to use the list as the basis for negotiations to end the dispute. Riel, seeing a need for more equitable representation in the provisional government, directed the convention of forty through the process of writing a constitution that redeveloped the elected assembly into 12 french and 12 english parishes, each of which would elect a representative, and this was put in place three days later.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Party was not been idle. While the French parishes immediately selected representatives for the new assembly, Canadian Party agitation in the English Parishes blocked any attempts to do the same. In two separate prison breaks in January, Mair, Schulz, Scott and others escaped detention. Many headed to Portage La Prairie and met up with Major Boulton and other supporters. On February 12th, Major Boulton led a party to meet up witH Schultz and others at Kildonan, with intentions to overthrow the Provisional Government. Unknown to them, Riel had freed the remaining prisoners in Upper Fort Garry on a promise that they were to refrain from engaging in political agitation. Major Boulton had misgivings about the plan of attack and attempted to withdraw, but both his brigade and Schultz’s were discovered by the NCM on the 17th. Major Boulton, Scott, and 46 other men were captured and once again thrown in detention while Mair and Schultz fled to Ontario.

Riel was furious at the attempt and demanded that Major Boulton be made an example of. A trial was held and Major Boulton pronounced guilty of treason. Smith and Father Thibault pled for leniency and mercy for the major, but Riel relented only when Smith promised to convince the English parishes to elect representatives fo the provisional assembly. Scott, an Orangeman from Ireland, was a badly behaved prisoner unlike Major Boulton’s stiff upper lip, and soon was known for his racist insults, lack of cooperation. Soon it was requested by the guards that Scott be tried also and he was found guilty of insulting the president, defying the authority of the provisional government, and fighting with his guards. A sentence of hanging was given, despite the fact that these were not considered capital crimes at the time so Smith, Boulton, and Father Thibault pled for mercy.

Later, Smith reported that Riel responded by saying "I have done three good things since I have commenced; I have spared Boulton's life at your instance, I pardoned Gaddy, and now I shall spare Scott." Though Scott’s life was spared, this was not the end of the Canadian Party. More Anglophones in the Red River Colony felt that they could trust Riel and the Métis, but there would always be those who were hostile to them and Catholicism.

Upon receiving news of the unrest, Alexandre-Antonin Taché, Catholic bishop of Rupert’s land, was recalled from Rome. He arrived back in Red River Colony on March 8, whereupon he conveyed to Riel his impression that the December amnesty would apply to both Riel and Lépine. On March 15 Bishop Taché read to the newly elected assembly a telegram from Joseph Howe indicating that the government found the demands in the list of rights to be "in the main satisfactory". Following the preparation of a final list of rights, which included new demands such as a general amnesty for all members of the provisional government and provisions for separate francophone schools, delegates Abbé Joseph-Noël Ritchot, Judge John Black and Alfred Henry Scott departed for Ottawa on March 23rd and 24th.

Shortly after this, Mair and Schultz arrived in Toronto, Ontario. Assisted by George Taylor Denison III, they immediately set about inflaming anti-Métis and anti-Catholic sentiment in the editorial pages of the Ontario press, but the news that the sentences of Boulton and Scott had been commuted and they had been freed on parole meant that only the anti-Catholic rags printed their incendiary rhetoric . Prime Minister Macdonald had decided before the provisional government was established that Canada must be fair and negotiate with the Métis. Although the delegates were arrested following their arrival in Ottawa on April 11th on charges of abetting insurrection, they were quickly released. They soon entered into direct talks with Macdonald and Cartier, wherein Ritchot emerged as an effective negotiator; an agreement enshrining many of the demands in the list of rights was soon reached. This formed the basis for the Manitobah Act of May 12, 1870, which admitted Manitoba into the Canadian confederation on July 15 with preliminary borders that surrounded the Red River Colony. The Act also recognised the provisional government created by the NCM as the first government of the Province of Manitobah, with Louis Riel as its President.

[bytor]

The Opening of Western Canada, Part II, The Expansion of Manitobah

President Louis Riel had always been an engaging and charismatic speaker and these attributes made him a popular first president of the new Province of Manitobah, even in the Anglophone parishes, though that didn’t seem to help much in the early days of negotiating how Manitobah’s borders would be expanded from the preliminary postage stamp that was used to quickly end the Red River Rebellion crisis. The Métis were a widely spread out people, like their Native cousins, and it was difficult getting recognition of their status by the federal government which waffled back and forth between refusing to use the name at all and only referring to the “Government of the Province of Manitobah”, and wanting to deal as if the Province did not exist and this was just another Native treaty negotiation.

For the first year or two, Riel, Ambroise-Dydime Lépine, John Bruce and others worked on establishing the mechanisms of government in the new province. There were no political parties yet in the initial assembly of the 24 parishes, but there were always three or four representatives who espoused either appreciation or alliances with the so-called Canadian Party. Because the parishes chose their representatives on no fixed schedule, the vote challenges and simple recalls meant a constantly shifting set of members for Riel and the government to negotiate with to pass any laws. Thomas Scott’s election in one of the wholly anglophone parishes generated a lot of headlines back in Ontario, but his openly racist attitudes effectively limited his ability to form a coherent bloc. Most residents of the anglophone parishes viewed Riel as a president who was willing to be open and inclusive thanks to his actions early on in the rebellion.

Things came to a head in the summer of 1873 when the government survey teams that were supposed to work with the Métis coureurs du bois arrived in Fort Garry while the legislature was debating whether the capital needed to be incorporated as a city and renamed something different. (The two leading contenders were “Gibraltar” from the old fort of the North West Company, and “Winnipeg”, proposed by Métis legislator James McKay.) At first, there was no problem with the Métis leading the teams to survey the watersheds south of the lakes region but there were issues with anything north of Lakes Winnipeg and Cedar or very far east or west. Riel’s orations on the subject in the legislature helped the people on his side, and the Province of Quebec was generally supportive of another francophone province being able to grow and become more powerful. Over time, however, Riel’s speeches became more extravagant, some said more “religious”, and his claims for Manitobah and the Métis became ever more expansive. In 1874, as the provincial legislature was coming close to settling a deal where all parishes would elect their representatives at the same time, instead of haphazardly nominating them when they chose, Riel made a speech where he claimed “The Thlewiaza River of the Chippewa in the North to the source of the Keiskatchewan river in the foothills of the Stony Mountains to west is the natural range of Manitobah and her people the Métis as our forefathers that travelled to guide the Euopeans throughout that wide land for centuries!” When word of the speech reached Ontario and the East, there was great public outcry and consternation in Ottawa. A province that large, everybody thought, would be incredibly politically powerful because of all the voters who would live there and the resources of the lands. Even Quebec was wary of supporting the growth of another province that might overshadow itself, no matter how francophone it was.

Riel easily led the Métis and allies bloc in the 1874 election under the new system designed to replace the rather chaotic original system with a common date for all parishes, as was found in other provinces. Shortly after this, however as Riel’s speeches became less legislative and more like that of a bombastic preacher from the Confederate States of America to the south he was quietly forced out office by the Métis National Committee in the fall of 1875 and he announced that he was heading to Montreal, where he had studied in his youth, for a sabbatical. His mental state deteriorated, and following a violent outburst he was taken under the care of his uncle, John Lee, for a few months. But after Riel disrupted a religious service, Lee arranged to have him committed to an asylum in Longue Pointe in the spring of 1876. In this time, Lépine became the new president of the Manitobah legislature

Riel leaving politics seemed to make things easier, a little, for the negotiations about the size of Manitbah, but when the bill that would eventually become the “Keewatin and Manitobah Act of 1876” was tabled in the House of Commons in Ottawa in early 1876, its proposed definition of Manitobah was “the river watersheds that extend no further east than the western perimeter of Lake of the Woods, that exist wholly west of the western tip of Lake Winnipegosis, and south of Lakes Winnipeg and Manitobah to the border with the United States”. Most Manitobans were incensed as this was barely 70% larger, and only one quarter the size of Ontario. The economic spread of their original Red River Colony into the North-West Territories was much broader, they said, but Oliver Mowat, Premier of the province of Cape Breton scoffed at them publicly. The Candian Party and its anti-francophone affiliates in Ontario felt they had won the day in Parliament as they had been lobbying their Ontario MPs and writing editorial after editorial in their newspapers on the “unsuitability of Half-breeds and French folk running something so important as a Provincial Government”. The bill was passed and given Royal Assent in the fall on October the 7th, over the opposition of Quebec, whose ministers denounced it as pitiful, and the objections of Alexander Morris, Lieutenant-Governor of Manitobah, who felt that province would be in a far better position to administer the areas to the east and north of Lake Winnipeg than the government of the North-West Territories, of which he was also the Lieutenant-Governor of.

At this time, the District of Keewatin was created, based on Morris’s opinions, and he was also made it’s Lieutenant-Governor as it was separate from the North-West Territories. The major settlement was Icelanders who due to volcanic eruptions and shortage of grasslands, as well as a population that had increased to the limit of resources. The Dominion Government granted free transportation within Canada and settlement rights for a reserve known as New Iceland (Nýja Ísland), established by an Order in Council. 27,000 acres was set aside for the New Iceland territory, which comprised 36mi astride the western shore of Lake Winnipeg between Boundary Creek and White Mud River (Icelandic River) inclusive of Big Island (Hecla Island). The Canadian government also promised the Icelanders local self-government, laws and judicial system and maintenance of their own school system. A smallpox epidemic, originating in the Iclandice settler’s town of Gimli spread out across Keewatin and was the major impetus in the creation of the district. Their local council was dissolved on October 7th, 1876, when the District of Keewatin was established by the Dominion Government. At this same time the territory of New Iceland underwent an official transfer to the District of Keewatin. This emergency was the only time that members were actually appointed to the Council of Keewatin for its administration. A quarantine zone was established around Gimli and a hospital was built there, as well as several Hudson’s bay outposts being commanded for the duration as specific hospitals or quarantine sites. By the time the quarantine ended, more than 100 Icelanders and 200 natives died because of the epidemic, and Hudson’s Bay Company lost a full year in the northern fur trade. The Council was dissolved that autumn though the district was not abolished. The laws passed for the quarantine situation remained in force past the end of the council until 1878, and Keewatin, over it’s varying extents, was managed by the Department of the Interior until 1895 when it was merged back into the North-West Territories.

New Iceland elected administrators again on February 13, 1877. Under the provisional constitution, the colony was named Vatnsthing (Lake assembly). It was divided into four districts each with its own administration: Vidinesbyggd (Willow Point District), Arnesbyggd (Arnes District), Flotsbyggd (River District) and Mikleyjarbyggd (Big Island District). When the quarantine ended in July 1877, it was too late to seed. The Federal government voted to survey a road in the colony and to employ the Icelanders to build it. This monetary income enabled settlers to remain at New Iceland until the following agricultural season of 1878.

During this time, negotiations started up again for the expansion of Manitobah thanks to pressure from Quebec on behalf of Manitobah after the 1878 federal election. The syndicates gathering to build the trans-continental railroad added their voices to the mix after the first railroad in Manitobah opened on December 3rd, 1878, from St. Boniface to St. Paul, Minnesota. The syndicates were angling for land grants along their routes as payment for the job of building the promised railroad to Columbia and New Caledonia on Pacific shores, and they didn’t want to be caught in federal-provincial squabbles about whom the land belonged to.

As a result, New Iceland became a part of the province of Manitobah when it was enlarged to its current size on December the 23rd, 1881 and added 4 representatives to the original 24 parishes of the provincial legislature. This regional Icelandic government continued until 1887 when all of Manitobah was redistricted to take account of the settlement of the prior 17 years. Much land was promised to the railroad syndicates, but Manitobah was relieved that off the direct railroads rights of way, at least, the land given to the syndicates would still fall under provincial authority.

[bytor]

Canada from 1867 to 1911

[bytor]

The States of the Republic of Alta California

During the 1848 rebellion against Mexican central authority and the declaration of independence, the Mormons sent a militia south to help fend off Mexican soldiers as they had been given permission to settle around the Salty Lakes by Governor Pio Pico. In addition to that land, they demanded a level of autonomy in their settlements and surrounding area to be negotiated later. It turned out that the militia was barely needed as the armies sent north by Mexico City were the usual lacklustre convict army that deserted at the first opportunity, but Governor, now Interim President Pico was a man of his word.

At first the new government was formed by the old territorial assembly plus the owners of the Ranchos, the alcaldes of the Pueblos, and the commandantes of the Presidios, but as news of the discovery of gold spreads around the world and tens of thousands people arrived and stayed, they demanded democratic elections either had or wished for back home. In 1849, on the anniversary of the declaration of independence, the Constitution of the Republic of Alta California was proclaimed, based on the 1824 federal constitution of the United Mexican States with influences from Europe, especially France. The first elections were held that fall with the new legislators and the first president taking the oath on the first Monday of December. One of the articles of the constitution was the power of the government to divide the lands of the new nation into states and territories with more or fewer devolved powers. Another article proclaimed that the first states had to be proclaimed within three years to replace the temporary senate of formed of, alcaldes, commandantes, and Rancho grantees. In negotiations between the Rancho owners and the alcaldes of the Pueblos, the capital which had been moved to Los Angeles by Pio Pico when he became territorial governor in 1844 was moved back to Monterey as it was much closer to Johann Sutter’s ranch and the centre of the gold rush.

Over the next 3 years, the new Republic surveyed its lands, sometimes accurately, often times not, and on Monday, March 1st, 1852, the Law of the New States was passed, creating seven states encompassing most of the old Ranchos, Missions, Pueblos, and Presidios, the special autonomous state of Deseret, and the remainder as federally administered territory to divided as deemed necessary through the establishment of pueblos by indigenous tribes of through land grants to settlers.

Because that early government of Alta California was dominated by the Rancho grantees who viewed the land through the lens of the water-constrained ranching practices that dominated much formerly northern Mexican territories, the borders decided upon were defined by river drainage basins, and the imprecision of many of the surveys came to be the cause of much political turmoil between the states. Especially volatile was that involving the state of Deseret. It was nearly in insurrection twice in the decades from independence until to the Great War that wracked the globe early in the 20th century due to different beliefs between Salt Lake City and Monterey as what was included in «al sur de la frontera con los Estados Unidos de América, al oeste desde el Río Oso hasta las tierras aledañas al Gran Lago Salado».

[bytor]

Alta California in 1852 at the creation of the first states

Attachments:

[bytor]

The First Indigenous State​
As the influx of people coming for the gold rush continued, pueblos were established in the Federally Administered Territories, or Territorios Administrados Federalmente (TAF), when settlements of 100 or greater voting residents elected a town council or ayuntamiento and petitioned the TAF governor for a charter. It was expected that as pueblos were established, the settlement patterns would guide the creation of new states and the governor would advise the federal government on this.

As U.S. settlement of its western territories proceeded after the establishment of Nibraska and Kansez territories in 1854 and conflict between indigenous peoples and European settlers became more common, Shoshone and related tribes started to filter across the border to join their brethren in northern and northeastern Alta California where there were more plentiful resources not plundered by settlers. After the the start of what the Americans called the “Snake War” in 1863, conflicts also became more common between the non-Mormom settlers of Deseret, who had many ties, both familial and economic, to the settlers across the border, and the local members of the Shoshone and Paiute tribes in the areas around the remote state.

Wirasuap, a Shoshone chief from what would become Idaho Territory, and his band had fled their camping grounds along the Bear River in Idaho because of threats from the U.S. Army, and along the way heard of the pueblo system of Alta California from Mormon missionaries who had given them assistance and how it was open to all citizens and residents. Wirasuap initially planned to settle his people on the other side of the Río Oso, but they soon found out that not all settlers of that state were as sympathetic as the Mormons who had helped them. Wirasuap, also known as Espíritu de Oso or Bear Hunter in English, established an encampment past the Río Verde which he called Ogwaiden, a Shoshone word for the spring around which the encampment was made. Buildings were constructed, resembling a cross between settler shanties and native tents. Wirasuap then sent messengers to the Shoshone, Bannock and Paitue to invite them to Ogwaiden.

When the first of the other bands fleeing U.S. Army and settler violence against them started arriving in Ogwaiden a few months later, Wirasuap set up a council of chiefs to govern the village. He then organised a travelling party and headed to Sacramento in Nueva Helvetia where the Administración Territorial was located. Wirasuap obtained a pueblo charter for Ogwaiden from the governor with understandings that a permanent encampment must be maintained, that missionaries would not guaranteed safety, and that trib-appointed magistrates would be sent to Sacramento within a year for legal instruction as the Apache and Nabajoa peoples in the southeast had been doing for their pueblos.

By the time Wirasuap had returned to Ogwaiden in late September it had grown to multiple encampments with over 500 people, and by next summer it was over 1,000 with many satellite encampments down the stream to the Arroyo Amargo, which the Mormon missionaries called Bitter Creek. By the autumn of 1866 more than a dozen other pueblos had been chartered, including ones by Paiute Chiefs Pahninee and Wahveveh. Those had been the indirect cause of a diplomatic incident when it was found out that the U.S. Army had followed them more than 170 millas across the border before the fleeing Paiute bands had escaped by fording the Río Pantanoso, and would continue to be a thorn in side of Wirasuap and the elders for many years to come.

It was at this time that respected Chief Washakie, who had gone to Sacramento for the required legal instructions as well as Spanish literacy training for himself and several younger sons of band chiefs, realised that the Shoshone and Paiute peoples were in danger of starving themselves out of a home, as had happened to Pahninee’s people when they were imprisoned in Oregon. In a council with the elders and other chiefs, Washakie and Wirasuap said that they should ask the Mormon missionaries on how to become farmers. Pahninee and Wahveveh, who had been fighting the settlers for many years before coming south and were well known for their hatred of them, opposed this scheme and called it traitorous to their traditional ways. Some of the elders agreed with them, having lost loved ones of their own to settler depredation in the USA, but most agreed that they were far safer here in Alta California, even if it meant they had to adopt some settler ways to feed themselves and their children as the land could not support as many with the traditional ways as had congregated here.

As word spread in the USA, the Shohone and Paiutes continued to filter into northeastern Alta California with dozens of pueblos being chartered based on the precedent set by Wirasuap in 1863. Many of these northeastern pueblos eventually became known for their farms producing not only the wheat of the settlers and corn native brethren in the south and east, but also many plants favoured in Shoshone and Paiute cuisines, like sourberries and serviceberries. Others became known for their fox or rabbit farms, set up so as to not deplete the wild animals the way they had seen the settlers do. Ranching also became popular, including antelopes, bighorn sheep, and bison in preference over settler cattle and sheep. The eastern turkey also became popular, as did various native duck species.

On July 1st, 1872, Pio Pico, President of Alta California for his final time, signed into the law the act that created the state of Yuta, the Spanish name for the Shoshones and their allied tribes. Its extent was proclaimed as “everything east of the Río Verde to the borders with Mexico, Texas and the United States”.

It was not much known by the residents of Yuta at the time, but in some ways they were a pawn of the Alta California government. Many of the gold rush immigrants from the U.S.A. did not assimilate into Hispanic Californio culture as well as their Sonoran, Chilean, and Peruvian counterparts did, or even as well as the European and Chinese gold seekers and they pushed for closer economic ties with the USA. Governmental policies tended to favour British and French foreign economic ties, and the U.S. Army had occasionally, if usually unintentionally, crossed the 42nd parallel chasing indigenous bands seeking safety in Alta California who had then rebuffed demands for extradition of infamous war chiefs, such as Pahninee and Wahveveh. So when the opportunity arose to both thumb the nation’s collective nose at the U.S.A. and the recalcitrant minority within their own borders by creating an indigenous-administered state, the Alta Californian legislature jumped at the chance.

The First Indigenous state

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[lordroel]

Nov 20, 2022 17:58:53 GMT bytor said:

The First Indigenous State​
As the influx of people coming for the gold rush continued, pueblos were established in the Federally Administered Territories, or Territorios Administrados Federalmente (TAF), when settlements of 100 or greater voting residents elected a town council or ayuntamiento and petitioned the TAF governor for a charter. It was expected that as pueblos were established, the settlement patterns would guide the creation of new states and the governor would advise the federal government on this.

As U.S. settlement of its western territories proceeded after the establishment of Nibraska and Kansez territories in 1854 and conflict between indigenous peoples and European settlers became more common, Shoshone and related tribes started to filter across the border to join their brethren in northern and northeastern Alta California where there were more plentiful resources not plundered by settlers. After the the start of what the Americans called the “Snake War” in 1863, conflicts also became more common between the non-Mormom settlers of Deseret, who had many ties, both familial and economic, to the settlers across the border, and the local members of the Shoshone and Paiute tribes in the areas around the remote state.

Wirasuap, a Shoshone chief from what would become Idaho Territory, and his band had fled their camping grounds along the Bear River in Idaho because of threats from the U.S. Army, and along the way heard of the pueblo system of Alta California from Mormon missionaries who had given them assistance and how it was open to all citizens and residents. Wirasuap initially planned to settle his people on the other side of the Río Oso, but they soon found out that not all settlers of that state were as sympathetic as the Mormons who had helped them. Wirasuap, also known as Espíritu de Oso or Bear Hunter in English, established an encampment past the Río Verde which he called Ogwaiden, a Shoshone word for the spring around which the encampment was made. Buildings were constructed, resembling a cross between settler shanties and native tents. Wirasuap then sent messengers to the Shoshone, Bannock and Paitue to invite them to Ogwaiden.

When the first of the other bands fleeing U.S. Army and settler violence against them started arriving in Ogwaiden a few months later, Wirasuap set up a council of chiefs to govern the village. He then organised a travelling party and headed to Sacramento in Nueva Helvetia where the Administración Territorial was located. Wirasuap obtained a pueblo charter for Ogwaiden from the governor with understandings that a permanent encampment must be maintained, that missionaries would not guaranteed safety, and that trib-appointed magistrates would be sent to Sacramento within a year for legal instruction as the Apache and Nabajoa peoples in the southeast had been doing for their pueblos.

By the time Wirasuap had returned to Ogwaiden in late September it had grown to multiple encampments with over 500 people, and by next summer it was over 1,000 with many satellite encampments down the stream to the Arroyo Amargo, which the Mormon missionaries called Bitter Creek. By the autumn of 1866 more than a dozen other pueblos had been chartered, including ones by Paiute Chiefs Pahninee and Wahveveh. Those had been the indirect cause of a diplomatic incident when it was found out that the U.S. Army had followed them more than 170 millas across the border before the fleeing Paiute bands had escaped by fording the Río Pantanoso, and would continue to be a thorn in side of Wirasuap and the elders for many years to come.

It was at this time that respected Chief Washakie, who had gone to Sacramento for the required legal instructions as well as Spanish literacy training for himself and several younger sons of band chiefs, realised that the Shoshone and Paiute peoples were in danger of starving themselves out of a home, as had happened to Pahninee’s people when they were imprisoned in Oregon. In a council with the elders and other chiefs, Washakie and Wirasuap said that they should ask the Mormon missionaries on how to become farmers. Pahninee and Wahveveh, who had been fighting the settlers for many years before coming south and were well known for their hatred of them, opposed this scheme and called it traitorous to their traditional ways. Some of the elders agreed with them, having lost loved ones of their own to settler depredation in the USA, but most agreed that they were far safer here in Alta California, even if it meant they had to adopt some settler ways to feed themselves and their children as the land could not support as many with the traditional ways as had congregated here.

As word spread in the USA, the Shohone and Paiutes continued to filter into northeastern Alta California with dozens of pueblos being chartered based on the precedent set by Wirasuap in 1863. Many of these northeastern pueblos eventually became known for their farms producing not only the wheat of the settlers and corn native brethren in the south and east, but also many plants favoured in Shoshone and Paiute cuisines, like sourberries and serviceberries. Others became known for their fox or rabbit farms, set up so as to not deplete the wild animals the way they had seen the settlers do. Ranching also became popular, including antelopes, bighorn sheep, and bison in preference over settler cattle and sheep. The eastern turkey also became popular, as did various native duck species.

On July 1st, 1872, Pio Pico, President of Alta California for his final time, signed into the law the act that created the state of Yuta, the Spanish name for the Shoshones and their allied tribes. Its extent was proclaimed as “everything east of the Río Verde to the borders with Mexico, Texas and the United States”.

It was not much known by the residents of Yuta at the time, but in some ways they were a pawn of the Alta California government. Many of the gold rush immigrants from the U.S.A. did not assimilate into Hispanic Californio culture as well as their Sonoran, Chilean, and Peruvian counterparts did, or even as well as the European and Chinese gold seekers and they pushed for closer economic ties with the USA. Governmental policies tended to favour British and French foreign economic ties, and the U.S. Army had occasionally, if usually unintentionally, crossed the 42nd parallel chasing indigenous bands seeking safety in Alta California who had then rebuffed demands for extradition of infamous war chiefs, such as Pahninee and Wahveveh. So when the opportunity arose to both thumb the nation’s collective nose at the U.S.A. and the recalcitrant minority within their own borders by creating an indigenous-administered state, the Alta Californian legislature jumped at the chance.

The First Indigenous state

Nice to see it back.

[bytor]

The Settling of French New Holland​
After the embarrassment of the Verona Scandal and the fall of the Villèle Ministry in 1822, the Ultra-Royalists were determined to get back in power and to find a way to show the strength of the French monarchy. With the return of Admiral Albin Roussin from a successful tour of South America an idea started to form, recalling the days of Louis Aleno de St Aloüarn who had claimed the western part of Terra Australis in 1772 for Louis XIV, and of Jean François de Gaup, Count of Lapérouse, who had famously explored and charted the western coasts in 1788.

The second Décazes ministry, however, was just as untenable as the first, and as that of du Plessis has been, and faced with constant attacks by both the Liberals and the Ultra-Royalists it soon fell. With the Ultra-Royalists back in power, they began to pressure Louis XVIII that a colony in the western half of Terra Australis, claimed in the days of his grandfather, would elevate France to a position of respect in Europe and help solidify the monarchy once more.

On April 22, 1824, to the dismay of the British, Admiral Roussin sailed for Terra Australis with a fleet of 12 ships and 1,100 sailors, convicts and family members. Roussin named his ship Astrolabe after the ship of Lapérouse and the main stores vessel Gros Ventre after St. Aloüarn’s ship. Vincent-Marie Viénot, Count of Vaublanc was chosen to the be the governor of Nouvelle-Hollande for his long acquaintances with Louis XVIII and Charles Philippe, comte d’Artois, the expected heir since the assassination of the Duke of Berry in 1820.

The Astrolabe arrived at what the Count of Vaublanc named the Bay of Orléans on the 28th of September, 1824, followed on the 30th and the 1st by the Gros Ventre and the rest of the fleet. On October the 1st, Vaublanc declared

Au nom du roi Louis XVIII, je renouvelle la revendication de souveraineté sur la moitié ouest de la Nouvelle-Hollande et les îles au large de ses côtes, faite du temps de son grand-père, Louis XV, en tant que colonie du Royaume de France.

About two months later, ships from Sydney in the British colony of New South Wales arrived in Bay of Orléans under the command of Major Edmund Lockyer and were perplexed to find the French settlement of Versailles already well under way. While it had been believed by the British that their ships were faster and that they knew the clipper route better than the French did, Admiral Roussin was a world-class navigator, and the rumours had not made it to the Lords Castlereagh and Bathurst until the project was well under way. In addition, the Governor of New South Wales was dealing with factional infighting in the colony and that the Colonial Secretary had been withholding documents from him which delayed the dispatching of Major Lockyer.

Unknown to de Vaublanc, Roussin and the others, Louis XVIII, health already failing when the fleet had left Toulon, had died a mere 16 days before the proclamation of the colony. A second fleet with more convicts arrived in May of 1825 with the news of his passing.

Like the British in New South Wales, Charles X used New Holland as a convict colony as an attempt to deal with the unrest and , sending an average of 2,000 convicts a year to the settlement at Versailles. This included members of the Paris National Guard in 1827 when he tried to disarm them. Many ships were sent to map the coasts of New Holland and to look for precious and useful minerals. Tiny flecks of gold embedded in rocks on the beaches were found at places that later became New Savoy, Montpelier, Louisville, Espérance and Le Corbeau, as well as evidence of iron, tin, lead and copper. Owing to the round trip time for the samples to be taken back to France for verification and how long it took to find the actual sources of the various minerals, only New Savoy was settled before Charles X was deposed. When de Vaublanc was recalled to France to meet with the new king, Louis Philippe, he took with him bottles of the first wine produced in a New Holland vineyard planted in 1825.

Louis Philippe, originally intending to end convict transport to New Holland, ended up following his predecessor's system. As he and his government turned more conservative and monarchicha, and the income gap between bourgeoisie and commoners widened considerably, crime continued to increase throughout his reign. As a result he felt compelled to maintain New Holland as a penal colony to try and maintain social order. In the words of Victor Hugo:

What is there against him? That throne. Take away Louis Philippe the king, there remains the man. And the man is good. He is good at times even to the point of being admirable. Often, in the midst of his gravest souvenirs, after a day of conflict with the whole diplomacy of the continent, he returned at night to his apartments, and there, exhausted with fatigue, overwhelmed with sleep, what did he do? He took a death sentence and passed the night in revising a criminal suit, considering it something to hold his own against Europe, but that it was a still greater matter to rescue a man from the executioner and, instead, send him to New Holland to work off his debt and gain a better chance in life.

Louis Philippe also attempted to convince the Legitimists to accept grants of land in New Holland exchange for the biens nationaux that had been given during the reign of Charles X to nobles who had had property confiscated during the French Revolution, along with the dangling fruit of titles in the French peerage for those who managed to sufficiently develop these lands. During the July Monarchy this only appealed to a few of those who were high in debt and had grown accustomed to working for a pension while putting on airs, but from them came people like the Comte d’Espérance and the Comte de Nouvelle-Bourgogne who played significant roles in the Pacific Theatre in the Great War that ended in 1911.