Theft, Rhetoric, and Fixed Bayonets: The Lone StAAR Empire

Part 6: The Twilight Years of the Father of Texas

In 1842, the Texan people turned out again to vote for a President. This time, there was hardly any contest at all: Mirabeau Lamar would achieve his second term, because the outrage over reeligibility never coalesced into a formal candidate. Without Sam Houston running, the Democrats would have no chance. The Vice President, Sidney Sherman, was placed in office after a brief Democratic convention named him as their presidential nod -- two weeks after the election. 'Remember Goliad!', a phrase commonly associated with Texas and the Texican war, was originated by Sherman at Corpus Christi.


Sidney Sherman, third Presidential governor of Texas

Sherman was a decent general and a fine man, but politically he was content to be a patsy, offering little resistance to the increased control exercised over the Texan government and clearly taking orders from Lamar, something the Governor was not, conventionally, supposed to do.

The Texans began to view Lamar with leery suspicion -- this was a man who had said Texans shall not tolerate tyranny regardless its source, and yet he had become almost Caesarean in his power over Texas.


Mirabeau Lamar: the increasignly controversial long-ruling President

During the early years of his second administration, he would establish the Bucephalus Society -- a colonial company devoted to wholesale expansion of Texas on Texas's official behalf. The Bucephalus Society would immediately seize upon the Gold River zone, an area which had been destabilized by the gradual collapse of the Moroccan government's leadership in northwest Africa. By the first months of 1844, the Texans had lain full clamancy on the entire region; the last of the pacts of conditional noninterference placed upon the local rulers expired in 1847, which would leave Lamar with a personal colony twice the size of Arratos's and that of the Texas Africa Company.


The first colonial establishment of the Bucephalus Society


That which followed, securing the Rio d'Oro claim

1846 would see another election year. Mirabeau Lamar ran again, to the general astonishment of the Texans, and again, Sam Houston, disgusted, refused to run, speaking of a falling-out with the increasingly corrupt Democrats. 'They are nothing but Lamar's willing puppets. If there is one thing more repugnant than a Republican dictator, it is the sycophants who give him a quorum.'

Again, the Democrats hardly even bothered to produce a Presidential candidate, and Sherman again took the office of Vice-President. At the same time, two things grew within the Texan public: increasing revulsion at the idea of one man ruling Texas for twelve years, and irritation at the lack of clear rivals. People wanted Houston to run, and were confused as to why someone who had gone so far as to appear in the costume of a baroque dandy at Lamar's inauguration in an unsuccessful attempt to sabotage the address to the nation that made Lamar the father of Texas refused to run against him.

Even Santa Anna, still holding tenuous power over Mexico, was said to have sneered, 'I do hope someone's told the Texans they are supposed to be a republic.' And so began the twilight years of Mirabeau Lamar: a great yet controversial president, soon to reach the end of his political career.

In 1847, Lamar would continue the expansion of the Bucephalus Society to the growing rage of Arratos, flagrantly ignoring the Arratos Doctrine in establishing the institutionality of slavery in the Cameroon colony even before a third of its land had been bought by Texan agents.


The Rio d'Oro colony


The Cameroon colony

In 1848, Lamar would establish the Texan Engineering Corps -- a group devoted to applying the scientific knowledge of Texas. They contracted inventors, staged demonstrations, and generally wasted quite a bit of money. However, one positive did come of them: the acquisition of new territories. Texas three times offered the service of Corps engineers to foreign powers: twice to Mexico and once to England. For the latter service, Texas would gain the Bengali port of Calcutta as a permanent base of operations in Asia and a small amount of specie.


Calcutta, jewel of the Texan Empire

And the other two times, when engineers were sent to the old enemy to the south -- who had since eaten crow and accepted Texas as a neighbor if not a friend -- they would be repaid with a significant amount of specie and some small, insignificant gains in Alta California.


The peacefully-acquired Utah and Nevada lands

The Corps would, from then out, no longer be made to serve other countries; on occasion, for a fee, they could 'consult' with the other country's own engineers, but by the time the idea of trading land for knowledge would come back into fashion, they could far more easily be transferred on paper than with engineers.

That same year, the brouhaha between Arratos and Lamar came to a head with Arratos demanding set borders on the colonies managed by the Bucephalus Society and the Texas Africa Company. A Lamar-dominated Congress would decide, on paper, in Arratos's favor; in fact, the regions taken by Bucephalus were the easiest to acquire and the richest, and to add insult to injury, an 'ambiguity clause' stated that any colony divided between the TAC and the Bucephalus Society east of a certain line would default to the Bucephalus Society were it not colonized completely by the TAC first.


The Congressional edict, which left the Texas Africa Company dissatisfied and demoralized

Tensions were high, and the bizzare arrangement resembled a formal treaty to partition Africa more than an internal trade ordinance. To be certain, the international community received it badly.

The Bucephalus society would, as the 1850s approached, go on an expansionist bender fueled by the powerful and growing Texan economy.


Nigerian lands would quickly fall under Bucephalus Society jurisdiction


The first claim in Mauretania


Cameroun nearing readiness for inclusion into the Texan empire in the Bucephalus Society's name


Futher claims in northwest Africa by Texas


Okay, now I am just being silly

In 1849, yet another election was approaching, and again, Mirabeau Lamar was running for President. And again, the Democrats didn't really scramble to get a candidate out. People were willing to vote for whoever came out of the woodwork with a competent social program and even the slightest bit of history.
Then, on August 19, 1849, the headlines in Texas all seemed to say the same thing:

Houston Returns!

Next time: Houston Returns

Part 7: Houston Returns

In 1850, the race would begin: Lamar versus Houston, the greatest grudge-match seen in a democratic country since the era of Jackson. It was a close race; Lamar was associated with all the good to come to Texas since the retirement of Houston, and yet those who voted for Houston were often heard to say 'A president who served four terms could not help but go down as the worst in his country's history'.

In July, the voters turned out en masse. They decided, by a margin of only 7%, to put Lamar in charge of Texas.

And Houston in charge of the Republic. 'At times I must wonder what I have done to deserve Lamar as a vice-president twice,' he was alleged to have said.

Under Lamar, the Vice-Presidency had shrivelled in real power. All he could do was protest feebly when the Texas Party-dominated Congress hiked tariffs.

However, one advantage he had -- something he made sure to wriggle into the code of laws of the country before being voted down -- was the ability to run Texas's growing colonial empire personally, with an unlimited amount of funds and resources. Eventually he would retire almost completely as a minority leader, focusing his efforts on his growing obsession, Texan domination of Africa.

Meanwhile, Arratos recognized the fact that the Texas Africa Company would not grow to its deserved prominence without provoking a war -- something that Lamar, adding insult to injury, had the power to and would stop. So he changed the focus of his efforts: using the equality-of-funds clauses to establish a new imperial dominion.

By 1854, despite the machinations of Lamar and the Bucephalus Society, the Texas Orient and Africa Company had prospered greatly.


The colonial gains of Lamar and Arratos during the early 1850s

The middle 1850s would see various tides of political thought sweep through Texas; the landowners squared off against the businessmen, and for the most part, the landowners would win.
Then the idea of civil service arose. Lamar endorsed a national competence test; the Texas Party, who continued to rule Texas, shot it down and replaced it with a 'vouching system' -- leading to nepotism at best and machine politics at worst.

In 1855, tragedy struck. Lamar was, for the third time, Vice-President -- and now President Travis ruled the Republic. Mirabeau Lamar, seen by many even then as Father of Texas, had grown embittered and enamored of many radical causes; he was loved but unappreciated, and as ground and glory fell to his rivals abroad and at home, he became a reclusive figure.

He took, in his last days, to adventuring -- it distracted him from the political scene, in which abolitionists gained more and more power in the USA and his dream of a Texan empire seemed to be straggling behind.
And in April of 1855, on a trip through the as-yet uncolonized Mauretania -- part surveyal, part mad adventure -- he suffered a sudden attack of malaise. Although he struggled against the idea of turning back, his companions took him to the Texan post at the village of Nouakchott, where he would die of heat prostration on the 20th.

'By God,' he said at his last, 'don't let them bury the dream.'

He was mourned by many -- even enemies such as Houston and Arratos paid their respects at his funeral. And without his leadership, the Bucephalus Company collapsed -- it would not expand with any great vigor or urgency for a decade.

Arratos's Texas Orient and Africa Company, meanwhile, prospered mightily -- without the Bucephalus Company hogging resources or money, they spread their empire quickly, blocking Dutch clamancy of Borneo and eventually spreading their dominion to New Zealand, which the Netherlands had acquired a powerful interest in within the last decade.

As Travis's second administration wound towards a close, the US initiated hostilities towards Mexico, and quickly proved their general ineptitude. As Texas watched in nervous silence, the Mexicans defeated the US at their only remaining common border -- northern California -- and quickly occupied Oregon.

It was clear where Texan sympathies lay in the war -- a band of volunteers lead by the young and reckless Colonel Brack joined the US force which failed to dislodge the Mexicans at Alturas -- and were captured.

The Mexican government termed them mercenaries and had them shot. Travis protested angrily, and the Texan people suddenly regained their suppressed national hatred for their southern neighbor. Volunteers flocked to the colors en masse -- enough to leave the Lone Star Republic with a whopping fourteen new cavalry divisions.

"The Mexicans are clearly better-prepared in all aspects of war than the Americans and Texans; she has better equipment, greater numbers of men, and those soldiers under the eagle and snake have already seen the horrors of battle against an enemy who knows his terrain -- the best comparison is between an old, battle-wisened lion and a pair of yearling cubs who have suddenly grown a thirst for blood. Espirit de corps, much like clove, is a fine spice -- but anyone who attempts to subside on either alone will quickly grow to regret it."
--Bismarck, July 1858, on the Mexican-American War

Despite the warnings from the Old World, Texas would, within the month, go to war with Mexico -- with Travis leading the country and Houston leading the military.


Texas at the eve of war with Mexico

Next time: Manifest Destiny

None to speak of, sadly. In my experience, the limiting factors on immigration are, in order of usual importance:

1. Ruling-party political liberalism
2. Political reforms
3. Space in RGOs/factories.

I personally prefer RGOs to be open for step 3 -- they're much cheaper and foreign laborers are preferable to an influx of foreign factory workers which can screw up your already-precarious craftsmen/clerks balance.

Once upon a time, in 1.00 vanilla, there was a strong tendency to wind up with Colorado and Kansas as 80% Beifangren; since then I think they've changed it so that POPs will only migrate either to 'historical' areas or from them. I forget which.
The real effect I can notice is that immigration from non-Europeans and/or uncivilizeds is near-nil, and most immigration goes to the state with your national capital, at least initially.

Unfortunately, without a bit of editing, I don't think it's possible to get a full-citizenship/secularized party which isn't socialist/third-party in Texas. In general, I don't think the VIP ever semed to realize that Texas would be anything more than a 'quaint' game -- I've gotten events which majorly modify militancy, consciousness, and life sustainability that involve less than a hundred people getting into a jumped-up bar brawl at the far side of Colorado in a day and age when Texas is fighting and beating... ah, I can't go on, or I'd spoil the surprise

Aanyway, nope. The only way to get a huge amount of immigration is playing as a country with plenty of economic potential which gets a full citizenship/secularized major party really early in the game, and then bum-rushing State & Government and taking 'Anticlercalism' when it comes up. (No, full citizenship/moralism or FC/pluralism won't work well, because moralism and pluralism are both turn-offs to migrants. I don't know if atheism is better than secular, though, I've never had an atheist primary party.)

A lot of economic potential is necessary to become a country of immigrants, though -- so the USCA won't work too well without raising badboy a lot. Hell, I'm going out on a limb and saying the only country likely to get a LOT of immigrants is the US -- you can get a handsome amount elsewise, but I think the US is the only country in which it'd be feasible to reduce both ruling minorities from better than 90% to less than 10% without conquest of non-cores.

Part 8: Manifest Destiny


Although Texas and Mexico had already come to blows, the hostilities beginning in mid-1858 would be called the 'Mexican-Texan War' -- or the Spanish version thereof south of the border -- because now it was not a question of independence. Both sides acknowledged the right of Texas to exist.

The lack of purpose severely bothered the people on both sides: as soon as it began, significant numbers of people felt exhausted by the war. Texas was clearly attempting to assert its right to own a huge swath of territory west of New Orleans Texas, over which there was a three-way running contest which left the Alta Californians stuck in the middle.

As soon as the war began, Guatemala entered on the side of Mexico -- it had existed for as long as it did only on the bluster of Mexico, just as the USCA had only existed as long as it did on the generosity of Texas. Texas had never recognized the independence of Guatemala, and the USCA was excited at the opportunity to weigh in against it.

Texan military advisors, however, warned against direct action:


The Texan commanders generally agreed that an immediate attack on Guatemala would be suicidal

Meanwhile, the odd new armies of Texas would finally have their mettle tested; they were a motley group, lead by Texan officers -- with a 'cowboy mentality' emphasizing swift action and maneuver -- spearheaded by native troops from Indian country, and by rank and file populated by a different sort of Indian altogether.



The Battle of the Frontier

"I am truly amazed at the results of Mr. Arratos's project -- at one point I held it in general dismay, but today even a fool could see it will be the wave of the future. Here are 30,000 men who had before Mr. Arratos's project began never left the hinterland of Calcutta -- and today they have covered more territory than many who reside in the State [Texas], under the guise of war; they have met the enemy, and although the enemy is better-trained and armed for bear, they have sent him south. Before July, I prayed hard for a favorable peace -- and September is only begun and now the flag of Texas can be found from Gulf [Mexico] to Gulf [California]. God has blessed me and the State in Mr. Arratos...
--Sam Houston, in the first letter home from Sonora

Farther north, the picture was not as rosy. Mormon rebels had declared that they would fight for neither Texas nor Mexico -- but rather for the 'free state of Deseret'. President Travis was no further inclined to humor the mad ambitions of a few hundred guerillas than his counterpart, so they would remain powerless.

General Zaragoza, a Catholic priest before the war, would lead the only significant Texan victories -- his command, comprising the second-crackest unit in Mexico and assisted by Mexico's only remaining brigade of cavalry, would make substantial advances in Nevada and Oregon against the two armies which rivalled each other and Mexico for dominion over Alta California.

"So far as I'm concerned," the Mexican general once said, "if the Texans or the Yankees want High California, they can have it. This war is far too similar to a man weakened by years of tuberculosis trying to fight off a pair of rival Hessian grenadiers -- fully armed -- with his bare hands, because they are attempting to steal an unbroken tiger which despises him.
In spite of all this, I fight... I alone have gained rather than lost ground, with the incompetent heir apparent Salas falling back before an army one part cowboys and seventy parts Banghalstanis..."



"Entering Las Vegas is like returning to the frontier Mexico of my youth... it is bare, but full of promise, and peaceful -- with a great respect for the law and the nation. There is no torrent of emnity towards the Lone Star, even among the Indians. I have heard translations of Jefferson in Spanish spoken among the Californians -- even by nomad Indians; the Texans practice a 'right to arm oneself', and yet not one in two finds any need to exercise it. They define 'anarchist' as 'Californian', 'communard' as 'Californian', 'madman' as 'Californian'... although I harbor every hope that Mexico will win the war, privately I wonder whether we deserve to..."

"Between Texas and Mexico, I would follow the land of my birth in a heartbeat. However, between President Travis and President Santa Anna... well, this will swift solve that.
Mr. Santa Anna, should you by any means come to read this letter, know this: for the duration of the war, I have declared myself President of Mexico... I do not presume to deprive you of your duties, but the Nevada occupation has so touched my soul... I can no longer, among the men I command, allow your miserable, Satanic rule to continue. Morale has risen since the declaration, I assure you, and I will restore your full position and submit to any cruel 'justice' you plan for me after the war is good and concluded.
To my family at home: Ampudia is a brave man, but I doubt he will last much longer. My men are brave, too, and ready to face death for their new President... but elan goes only so far against an enemy who outnumbers us three to one. Reinforcements will not come. The Mexican navy is incapable of giving them, and the Mexican army is across the continent..."

"Backward to reinforce Ampudia. If acting on my Presidency would not make a war criminal out of me, I would gladly surrender California at once -- the gains we have are clearly temporary."

"Yankee bastards refuse to accept surrender. Eureka will be my grave. Regret not having fled westwards into Utah and leaving Ampudia to his fate. As a liberal I cannot see an end worse; as a Mexican I cannot see an end better. Would that I had chosen my beliefs... but there's nothing to be done now. Goodbye, and God bless."

Not a one of General Ignacio's letters would reach his family while he lived; Houston's command would intercept them, and Houston kept them to prevent them leaking to the Texan press.

In the south, Texan cavalry would run roughshod over the Mexicans again and again, driving the shattered Mexican army into pieces, southwards towards the Pacific and into rebel positions, into pockets; the assault was relentless and Santa Anna was now shut up in his chambers all hours of day and night, fearing to leave Mexico City due to swift-advancing Texan cavalry and liberal rebels. The popular divide was no longer liberal versus conservative; it had become liberal versus anarchist.


The Texans break the Mexicans at the battles of the frontier

As Houston's men chased Mexican partisans out of Sonora into Alta California, McCulloch took divisional command, defeating in turn Alvarez and Marrigo -- respectively leaders of Santa Anna's guard and the sergeant-at-arms of the Communa Ciudad de Mejico -- and taking command of the Mexican capital.


In 1859, the end had clearly come for Mexico.

Santa Anna had ruled Mexico with an iron fist almost uninterrupted for more than twenty years. Fighting rebels and foreigners had taken a lot out of him, and he had clearly gone insane by the time Texas captured him the second time. In spite of the fact that he was clearly willing to recognize a more abject Mexican defeat than anyone could have imagined two years previous, he could not seem to keep the wars straight -- he made several sly but earnest attempts to offer McCulloch peace in exchange for Colorado! -- and Salas declared Santa Anna unfit to govern and named himself acting president of Mexico. At the same time, he refused to surrender. No foreign country would meditate peace; McCulloch came up with a devious plan to compensate.

When he gave the plan to Houston, the latter personally disapproved -- and so did President Travis.

"The idea of a filibuster not only during, but as a fundamental maneouvre of, a major war -- it perfectly illustrates the Texan national temprament."
--Louis Napoleon

McCulloch attacked anyway -- and thus began the long, hard occupation of Guatemala. Many of the leading Texan officers, including McCulloch, were killed during the initial fighting -- and the attack would certainly have failed had not the Central Americans almost immediately weighed in against Guatemala.


Fighting was brutal and lasted months, but the Guatemalans broke and the country was occupied in January 1860.

Now Salas had a problem: Mexico had sworn to protect Guatemala at all costs, and now the Central Americans occupied them entirely. Houston quickly offered them peace: Mexico would become a Texan protectorate, giving up all of Alta California and retaining her core territories -- and having a guarantee of Texan protection against foreign aggression.

Texas and Mexico had been closer than Texas and the US -- and all that seemed to live in Alta California any more were communists and anarchists. All the Mexicans could hope to do would be to prolong the inevitable -- and Salas's illigitimate rule had gone on too long. Grudgingly, Salas accepted -- and returned the Presidency to Santa Anna.

The Texans, naturally, could not contain themselves: it was over, and they had won more than they ever could have imagined.


Texas after the Treaty of Jalisco

"The Texans have indeed built a "glorious empire" -- ill-gotten gold shines as well as that a man has earned, does it not? -- and so it goes with Texas: their empire is as great as ours once was, as it is the same empire. What we built by sweat, tears, and the grace of God, they have taken by theft, rhetoric, and fixed bayonets. History will not forgive them and neither will I."
--Salas after Jalisco

"By jingo, it is a fine time to be a Texan!"
--Houston after Jalisco

END OF CHAPTER 1

Next time: Chapter 2

Chapter 2: An Empire upon which the Sun never Sets

The Europeans had long known war, struggle, strife, and similar chaos. To a degree, before 1860 they saw the Americans as country cousins divorced from such notions.

That tumultuous decade, often called the Era of Ill Will, would prove them terribly wrong. In North America, things would reach a fever pitch by 1860:

The United States, infuriated at the fruitless war lead to a great degree by the South against Mexico, would elect Abraham Lincoln seemingly out of pure spite. There was much moaning and gnashing of teeth, and South Carolina spoke seriously of secession -- saying 'A man who cohabitates a house with someone who hates him does both himself and the other a great injustice', or more often 'They'll put one of them Black Republican bastards in charge of my state over my dead body'.

Texas, on the other hand, had grown more in power than the architects of the War could have imagined -- but with that power came a tremendous burden. They inherited four states -- Utah, Arizona, Gran California, and Upper Sonora -- which were wracked by general fervor. The radicals in the Bear Flag State fought for independence, many Mexicans fought for reassumption by plebiscite, and more than one native group seemingly took up arms because it seemed the fashionable thing to do. While the general fervor for Mexican reassumption would die down by the close of the decade, Indian attacks and radical rebels would continue to plague California in particular for generations.


Alta California during the Era of Ill Will
I know a lot of you are looking at that 16% with a mix of incomprehension and horror, but that's small potatoes. Try playing Peru, pre-VIP, 1.03 -- after dealing with revolt risks which show up British-India pink to represent 48%, you find yourself oddly incapable of worrying overmuch about such piddly stuff.

Mexico, on the other hand, only had to worry about crippling debts, constitutional dependence on Texas, the loss of roughly half of their country, and a President-for-Life who spent most of the time either trapped in an opium-induced haze or repressing the Mexican people for no sound reason.

Lucky them.

In the rest of the world, Denmark and Italy had collapsed under foreign pressure -- the former being divided between Hamburg and Prussia, with the latter of those two naturally getting the lion's share of the country and her entire colonial empire, and the Italians being carved up efficiently by France and the Ottomans.
Meanwhile, in Asia, the Ottomans elected to conquer Nejd -- for a humiliatingly large prestige hit -- but not Ha'il, which had gone bankrupt twice. Note also the Persians expanding and the Russians not.


The changes thus described, 1860. Pictured but not previously mentioned: The Dutch deciding that, if they can't make a tidy colonial empire, they can settle for being jerks.

Finally, in 1861, the inevitable happened: Lincoln was sworn in as President. South Carolina immediately seceded from the Union. The Lower South soon followed behind them, taking all of the states expected to secede except for the vital ones, Arkansas, Kansas, North Carolina, and Virginia.

The USA proceeded to refuse to act, even going as far to abandon the besieged Fort Sumter to the Confederacy. This humiliated the United States and left the Confederates -- and Texas -- faintly bewildered more than anything else.


The 'Surreal Revolution', mid-1861

Now came the time of trials for Texan politics: what would be done about the Confederates? Some -- the Destiny Party primarily, Lamar's faction even after his death -- were in favor of a 'Double Presidency', in which the CSA and Texas co-ruled their mutual territory, ground the interferent US into the dirt, and ruled central North America as slaveholders forever.

They would do far better if it weren't for their belief in religious pluralism -- 'protect the rights of the home churches, and those of the lesser ones as well'. This conflicted both with the old guard, who were largely in favor of creating laws separating Catholics, Buddhists, Muslims, and 'pagan' faiths from Protestants, and the new generation, who moved freely from Catholic to Protestant areas, who appreciated art and literature from the colonies -- which were un-Christian altogether -- and overall were not in favor of imposing any religious order.
It was the beginning of a deep cultural anti-clericalism that would change the face of Texas forever.

Meanwhile, the Texas Party remained intentionally vague on the Confederacy -- pleasing both sides, and temporarily holding the high ground in elections.

The Democrats favored a rather bland 'status quo' with respect to foreign relations, shared the Destinists' pluralist problem, and what's more, held economic beliefs even farther to the economic right than the Texas Party.

The Republicans favored union with the US to fight the Confederates, a position that a few favored and most opposed. They would be a gadfly, serving mostly to steal votes from the rising star of the political scene by espousing similar social doctrines.

The Anticonfederate Party, meanwhile, had risen seemingly out of nowhere. They wanted to oppose the Confederacy actively while remaining fiercely independent, to end slavery as an antidote to Confederate influence, to secularize Texan government, and to grant citizenship to Texas as a whole.

Through the 60s, they would grow in power steadily. And the first half of the decade at the very least would be peaceful -- discounting, of course, the beginning of the Forty Years' War, which directly affected Texas very little -- although their ally France fought it against the Ottoman Empire, Texas never entered it.

Some pin the end of early Texas to the signing of the Treaty that handed Alta California to the Lone Star Republic -- some to a war yet unmade which would radically redefine her position on the world stage.

It can hardly be argued, however, that the death of Sam Houston, shot by a Mexican-Californian anarchist who was never captured a few miles from Eureka, was the end of an era. As a president, he was nothing special -- perhaps it was merely the times at which he was elected, perhaps not. But as a general, he would be remembered as a Texan hero -- among its first.


Texas in 1865

Next time: Center Stage

Yeah, I'm noticing that a lot of parties don't bother going to sleep... ever. Two-party states aren't supposed to have elections being won with 35% of the vote... :rofl:

Don't worry, though. There aren't ever any three-way races. The Destinists took over after the Whigs, the Texans took over after them, and then the Anticonfederates (who, well, I made up -- liberal, interventionist, protectionist full-citizenship, secularized, anti-military) pretty much eclipsed them as an opposition party... the circle goes on. The rest of them, third-parties and primary parties, remain pretty much gadflies.

Big things are a'comin' for the empire of the American west... more than that I can't tell you, except that because Texas is now an aristocratic/nepotist system, there are going to be a mess of Samuels and Mirabeaux running around. :wacko:

An Intermission

A hotel, San Francisco. The year is 1861; the CSA has broken from the USA, and tensions seem to be mounting.
That is, however, in a foreign country. On the outside, San Francisco is wracked by periodic revolts by radicals, secessionists, and Mexican repatriatistos. Inside of the majestic edifice, however, there's little sign of that; there are armed guards to ensure that no political statements by direct action occur.

A man speaks with a woman quietly about the prospects for a new life.

M. Phoebe, I know as well as you do that this is a strange, backwards country. That's exactly why I want to move our business here.
Phoebe. But it's... it's...
M. A veritable battlefield? Yes, I know. With this much chaos, and this much destruction, how can business be bad here? People will need vital supplies, infrastructure work will need to be done. If I were to liquidate my assets in the States -- which I don't even need to go so far as to do -- I could easily recoup what I had lost in two years. The States might be developed, and Texas undeveloped, but it is developing. There is money to be had here, darling, and I doubt if I shall allow it to slip by.
Phoebe sniffs indignantly.
Phoebe. Can't you run your businesses here from home?
M. I could. Then again, with things the way they are at home, I'm all too likely to have vital portions of it seized for interfering with someone's war effort. If I throw the whole hog into Texas, at least I won't lose any of it because of some grubby-handed officers.
Phoebe. I suppose what you say has merit. But how are we supposed to raise a family... here?
M. Here? Hah! Darling, we have money enough to raise a family in Hindustan even if we call this place home, to say nothing of more civilized areas of the world. We will tour Europe and the Americas at will, of course.
Phoebe. Ah, and here I questioned your acumen! I'll see to having our affairs moved at once, beloved.

...

San Francisco, some time later. The gentleman from the previous scene, aged by about seven years, is reclining in a lavish room of his personal mansion, reading a newspaper he had recently bought. Were he a lesser man, that would mean he had bought only what he was holding in his hand. He reads aloud:
Father. Magruder's brave boys, ranch-hands and cowboys hardened but not fundamentally changed by the war, have continued to make great advances against enemy armies in the northern parts of the country. With our steadfast French allies marching forward against little competent resistance behind them, Magruder and his men have run circles around the Italians. Their generals have gone through so many loops they are certainly fit to be tied, and it is almost certain that this war will come to a satisfactory end before the year is out.
He folds the paper downwards, and sees a child, about six. The child bears a fair resemblance to him, less the handsome moustache he has taken to wearing of late -- but given his young age, he can hardly be faulted for that. The child has also seemed to be quite a prodigy, albeit an extremely overenthusiastic one -- in the last years, he has professed interest in owning a railroad, an iron mine, a newspaper, and a senator. (Little pitchers, big ears.)
Son. Father, I should like to fight in the War.
His father dons a somewhat bemused expression.
Father. Son, whatever for?
Son. Charles Junior -- the Confederate consulate's boy, his father reminded himself -- has said that the army is the best thing for a man of good standing to fight in. Isn't that true?
Father. Only for the bellicose Southerners. Son, have you learned yet who Pluto was?
Son. He was a Greek.
His father laughs.
Father. Yes, Billy, he was. He was also the god of money for the pagan Greeks. People say 'plutocrat' derisively -- that means 'like an insult' -- because they think people have no right to have power because of the money they've made for themselves. Son, that's just foolishness. God did not give us what we have for nothing; he gave it to us because He knows we will do the right thing. That's what a plutocrat is: a ruler who has been given God's natural order. I have nothing bad to say about the military, but it is a place for followers. Pedro, the maid's boy, is the sort of child who will be a follower.
It escaped Billy's father at the time that the only reason Pedro was a maid's son was that his relatively well-off father had been an Anarchist, but that hardly matters now.
Billy. Pedro is a dullard who speaks funny.
Father. Yes, son, he is. And that's the sort of person they want in the army. You aren't a dullard and you don't speak funny.
Billy. But I still want to see the war, father. It has to be exciting or they'd get tired of it and do something else.
Billy's father finds this amusing and Billy does not really understand why, but he giggles along.
Father. Well, Billy, I'm sure maybe we can see Italy together.
And he'll be cured of these absurd notions, Mr. Hearst thought to himself, and the subject of a trip to Italy would slip his mind for some weeks.

Part 2: Center Stage

The French were drawn into another war in the mid-1860s when the Italians, tired of being forced by diplomatic circumstances to use Tornio as a capital, declared Rome sovereign Italian territory.

The Pope was not pleased, and neither were the French. An invasion would quickly follow.


The Texan fleet of observation watched the French whooping the Italians alone for some time

Texas, again, was not sucked into the war as soon as it began, but this time there was a real desire to enter it: the Italians were a weak enemy who could be thrashed easily, and would be beaten with or without Texan help.


The Texans, including Magruder's Corps, at the outset of the war -- outnumbered and outgunned, but extremely flexible

John Magruder, a recent Virginia transplant who expressed a solid dislike for the European style of 'warfare by attrition' using infantry, left the French frontier and headed south:


Magruder's campaign of maneuver

The campaign would be wildly successful; while the rigid, drilled formations used in European warfare left the Texans in possession of a severe handicap, Magruder made the most of it: swift to advance, swift to fall back, swift to encircle, swift to break through enemy lines. Speed was the key to the Texan campaign, not force of numbers; this was because it wasn't certain they could beat even Italy by force of numbers.


Early successes along the Umbrian front

In 1868, Rome fell -- and with it the Italian government. Their stubborn intransigence forced Magruder to abandon the Umbrian countryside to hold the city.


Whoops, wrong game

By 1869, they had reached an impasse: Italy did not want to yield to Texan demands and Texas did not want to compromise. So the Texans, dutifully enough, opened a third front:


The Texans invade Sicily using a second military force

Finally, Texas would force a peace with Italy on the terms that France would receive all territory she had prewar as well as all that she had occupied in the war, Texas would receive the entire island of Sicily, and Italy would become a semi-independent state under the indirect rule of Texas. They would indemnify Texas for three years in monthly installments -- for 'heavy damages' inflicted on the Texan army during the war -- and that would be it.

The era of Italian nationalist wars was over, and had been replaced with an embarassing and crippling peace.

The Ukraine declared its independence within the week, for certainly unrelated reasons.


Italy after the Treaty of Rome. Inset: the Ukraine.

It is a great shift for a nation of the Americas to appear writ large in the affairs of the Earth... for their entire existance they have usually been in the most distant periphery, and this [the Texo-Italian War] is certain to change that. The Texans have forced themselves onto center stage -- whether they are a player or merely an errant stagehand yet remains to be seen.
--Benjamin Disraeli, 1868

Next time: Prince John and the Texan Jingoes