Libertad o Muerte! - AARgentina

[Treppe]

Davisx3m: As a matter of fact the war is already over. But I was just too lazy to put all the peace deals and stuff into the last update.
Kurt_Steiner: Well, I guess it will some where along the lines of Herbert West's proposal.

After the 1865 update there will be another "News from Around the World" update which will encompass the peace deals in north America and further developments. Is there something you want to read about apart from the ACW aftermath? A special region, a nation or a specific historical event (which happened between 1860 and 1865)? Just bring your proposals forward and I'll try to come up with something.

[hoi2geek]

I want a report about massive revolts in Ireland, Brittany, Poland, and the Philippines, which in the end would see them independent states.

[Treppe]

hoi2geek: Well I wasn't offering kind of a wishing well but rather offering looks on spots of interest around the world in this AAR. Ireland, Brittany and Poland probably won't see independence in this AAR (until the AI goes mysterious ways), the Philippines however have at least a small chance, as the spanish government is not strong enough to hold their colonies together.

[Treppe]

In the early days of 1865 the inhabitants of Lima rebelled against their civilian government and the Platinean military governor. Soon the small police-force of Platinean soldiers was overrun by several thousand angry Peruvians, which stormed police stations and government buildings alike. The military-governor of Perú took refuge in the Platinean embassy and send a telegraph to General Osorio's headquarters in Cuzco asking him to restore order in Lima.
General Osorio immediately marched out. But the situation of the refugees in the Platinean embassy became ever more dire. The rebels laid a real siege to the embassy. And the few embassy guards had to fight a desperate defense until in the night of the 27th January a force of 100 royal marines landed at the beaches near Lima and sneaked their way into the city. Once in the rear of the siege-force they stormed the barricades and broke through. But it would take more than a week until General Osorio's army would arrive, sweeping through the streets, setting an end to the rebellion.
In Buenos Aires the cabinet meetings then were dominated by the question of the consequences for Perú. In the end the hardliner faction prevailed. Perú was officially dissolved and integrated into the Cuzco territory.

Later that year Prince Juan-Carlos, who had just recently turned eighteen, married Princess Isabella of Brazil. The ceremony was held at La Plata Cathedral with more than a thousand nobles from Brazil and Platinea as well as dukes and kings from Europe in attendance. The festivities encompassed balls, concerts, banquettes, parades and fireworks and lasted for an entire week.
All this costing the state quite a fortune, as large as many other nations yearly income. But it wasn't only a meeting of many crowned heads of state but of many diplomats as well and thus many secret talks took place. But the only one who came to public knowledge was the renewed alliance of Platinea and Brazil.

In February the 'Liebig Meat Extract Company of London' had offered the Platinean government to build a factory in Montevideo if they were assured financial support for this project. It took the Platinean government a long time to assure the needed sum as they weren't to keen build a factory but get nothing in return. Finally they agreed, to not frighten away further European investors.
Furthermore construction began of a luxury furniture factory in Patagonia Oriental, mainly to satisfy the courts increased need of fine furniture.[1]

The 'discovery' of iron steamers marked the beginning of a new era for the Platinean royal navy. The wooden sailing ships, which had become obsolete since ships like the 'Virginia' and the 'Monitor' had emerged, would soon be replaced by armored, steam driven, turret ships. Prime Minister Mítre hurried the naval department to get those new discoveries transferred into fighting ships as quickly as possible, in order to get them afloat right before the next elections which would be a great propaganda success for him.
The landforces wouldn't receive any new toys in the near future but the number of the reserve division was raised by eight from 12 to 20. Which was widely seen as a part of Mítre's policy of national strength.

[1] I decided to not longer mention every new factory or the promotion/demotion of pops, as it is always the same...

Author's note:
selfmade event: Prince Juan Carlos Wedding

[Viden]

Would Platinea and Brazil become one single kingdom?

[Mr. Santiago]

Glad to know that this is still running, it's one of the very first AARs I ever read

[Treppe]

Mr. Santiago: And I'm glad that this one is still read, despite being a Victoria 1 AAR. Be assured this AAR will not end without a statement of me that confirms such beliefs. And as of know I have no intentions doing so in the near future. But updates take their (quite long) while.

Viden: Well old chap, how could I possibly answer your question whithout giving away too much? Just let's say the option of a unified Platinean-Brazilian state is up on the "negotiation table".

[Herbert West]

Its alive!

[Treppe]

[Viden]

Nice update, as always.

[Mr. Santiago]

Nice update. I suppose that the dotted lines in the California & Deseret maps mean they have claims/cores on each other, right?

[Baknor]

Just discovered this more-than-good AAR, and just read the whole.

I hope we won't have to wait too much for the next chapter...

[Treppe]

Mr. Santiago: Yes, the dotted lines marks the claims of each nation. The claims are not only on the maps of California and Deseret but also on the large map on the front page.
California claims encompass the Nevada territory, especially for it's mineral wealth and the San Diego Province which had been taken by Mexico during the ACW.
Deseret has claims similiar to the borders when deseret applied for statehood the very first time in 1849/50. Which basically is the Arizona territory and southern california.
The Confederacy also has claims in the west encompassing New Mexico territory and while it has ceded all claims on Arizona to Mexico more than a few confederate politicians have their greedy eyes on it.

Baknor: Welcome to Platinea. Well that were two updates in a row. Considering my usually long pauses between updates I would say I'm on a hot streak. But it seems I have to disappoint you, atm I really don't know when the next annual update might be scheduled.
By the way I've stumbled across your Argentinean AAR in the Spanish forum and for the lack of any knowledge of the Spanish language I can only say that I like your graphics. And I'm curious to see where you will lead your Argentina to.

[Treppe]

Early this year the naval secretary reported that platinean shipbuilders supported by the american engineer Grayson were now able to build armored and steam propelled warships, the ironclads.
Ever since the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, which showed the superiority of these new shiptypes, the platinean government and navy were eager to build or purchase their own ironclads to close the 'technological gap'.
Of all the different kinds of ironclad warships, that had emerged during the American Civil War, the Naval Development Board focussed all their efforts on the so called „Ironclad Turret Ship“. An oceangoing vessel, that could use both steam and wind for extended voyaging with all its mainguns concentrated in two well-protected turrets amidship.
Eager to demonstrate Platineas modernity and power President Mitre instantly ordered the laying down of two ironclads.

Furthermore new naval facilities were build or old ones extended to create maintenance and reserve capacities for a future ironclad fleet. In the following months the platinean naval command developed new tactics for their future ships in order to use their speed and turrets to their full potential.

While the platinean government in these days mainly focused on naval innovations a young gunsmith by the name of Enrico Rossberg and former employee of the Brannigan Arms Company set up his own workshop in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. The EnRoss Weaponsmithy.
The rise of the EnRoss Weaponsmithy was secured by the Patent and Trademark acts that parliament passed in May and June.


In late March the newly wed crown prince Juan Carlos and his wife princess Isabella arrived in europe aboard the royal frigate Pegasus. There first stop was England, where Queen Victoria welcomed them warmly. But what was planned as a short and quick stopover, a mere formal call, on their way across europe in order to pay visits to the major euopean dynasties and reestablish contacts to the other branches of the bourbon dynasty, became a quite long sojourn due to the unfortunate affairs on the continent. Since February the relations between Prussia and Austria grow more tense and in mid-march, way before spring had come to central europe Prussia declared war on Austria and set its military machine in motion. With all the other german states and Italy joining in, all future plans of visiting Baden [1] and Spa-Francochamps were set aside.
Thus the crown prince stayed at London and in Windsor Castle were he regularly attended festivities and balls. During this abidance crown prince Juan Carlos was enthralled by the sport of polo. He visited more than a dozen games and rumors said that he even took part in at least one of them.

[1] In this case the city of Baden is meant which was renamed to Baden-Baden only in 1931.

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As I'm having capacity problems with my imagehoster future updates will not contain as many pictures as usual until I'm able to solve this situation.
I would be grateful if anyone could give me some hints for solving this problem.

[Mr. Santiago]

Nice update.
I'll be blunt and suggest the obvious, can't you erase some images you no longer use? Or compress the older ones to a lighter format?

[Viden]

It's back!

[Mr. Santiago]

It's back!

I forgot to express my joy!



There

[Treppe]

@Mr. Santiago: Well it seems that my imagehoster-account was restricted to 500 pictures when I had nearly 600 pictures online. Therefore I have already deleted most of the pictures that are not related to "Libertad o Muerte!" (actually there are around 450 pictures in or related to this AAR) and resizing pictures does not help as the size seems not to matter.

@Viden: For now! Don't expect too many updates, you else might be disappointed. On a completely different note: What the hell are you doing in eastern Germany?

To all my readers: Please do not expect more updates on a regular basis. As I'm writing these updates only now and then when I have the muse to do so and enough spare time at my hands. A combination that became dangerously rare, hopefully it's not going to extinct. Also further updates might be, as mentioned before, scarcely illustrated. A circumstance that might discourage me, as I really like to illustrate this story.

[Viden]

@Viden: For now! Don't expect too many updates, you else might be disappointed. On a completely different note: What the hell are you doing in eastern Germany?

Einwandern und Arbeitssuche.

But I will study another degree here in Leipzig.

BTW, you can convert your AAR to a PDF format and then erase the pictures of older updates.

[Treppe]

When the year of sixty-six came rolling along the election campaigns were already in full swing. President Mitre, unconstested by members of his own party, was running for a second term. As his contender emerged the conservative member of parliament José Joaquín Peréz from Santiago.


The party convention that elected the little known Peréz to run on the federalist ticket was a remarkable one. Tensions between several lobbies among the federalists broadened and widened over the candidature and the future course of the party. Already before the final vote was held some delegates left the convention under protest. When Peréz was elected with only 42.3% of all votes as the candidate for the office of prime minister a turmoil broke out. Delegates where involved in fistfights with each other and many fled the assemblyhall. In the end the convention had to be dissoluted by the police of Buenos Aires.
Peréz was anounced the official candidate of the Partido Federalista by leaders of the party in several conservative newspapers.

This party convention frankly showed the inner disruption of the Partido Federalista in public. A disruption that had gained more and more force among the last legislative period. Now it became obvious, that the conservatives where not of one mindset but more likely an amalgamation of different interests. The major conflicts among the Federalists where centered on 1) Which role should clerics have in local politics, 2) different interests of the Crofters (Farmers) and the squires (big farmers and/or great land owners) as well as the non agricultural rural populace (eg. Miners), 3) should the interests of the growing group of factory workers be incorporated into the conservative agenda of the Partido Federalista. Especially among the more moderate conservatives the latter point was seen as decisive to break the dominance of the liberals, while it was harshly opposed by the 'right wing' conservatives.
Thus José Peréz tried to run for presidency with a minimalist programm with the intention to not repel any of the conservative groups.

Mitre's popularity as a war hero was still unbroken and even bolstered by his successfull policies of his first term assured him unopposed support among the liberals in all of Platinea. While the reforms of the military and the successes of his administration in the area of foreign affairs raised his support among traditional conservative voters.

The American Civil War brought to this point unseen masses of immigrants to Platinea, almost eight million immigrants during the last four years. Increasing the population to 20 million. The immigrants weren't a homogenous mass but they were a huge voter group with a mostly liberal mindset, that was nearly unreachable for the Federalists.
A Factor that should play a huge role in the upcoming election.

When the election day came around it became clear, that the Partido Federalista was more disrupted than ever. And that Perez' campaign was not able to cover any of the rifts among the conservative lobbies. But he was able to gather some mutual support for the conservative cause in the former chilean provinces from Copiapo in the north to Magdalena in the south.

The liberals carried over 78% of the popular vote, but won only 71% of the seats in congress, due to the rural electoral districts.[1]
Still their best election result since the first congress elections in 1850.

When King Juan I. opened the new session of parliament and inaugurated Mitre for his second term in July, the conservative delegates were so at odds with each other that they even didn't magage to form a unified parliamentary group. Instead several conservative parliamentary groups emerged in the aftermath of the election.


[1] By the constitution of 1849 it was declared, that for every 10,000 eligible voters[2] one delegate had to be elected into congress. But this guideline could only be fullfilled in the more dense populated areas. In the vast hinterlands electoral districts contained only a few hundred eligible voters while encompassing thousands of square miles.
In the scarcely populated state of Chaco every congressman was elected by a mere 1000 voters, while in the large cities like Buenos Aires every delegate represented the full amount of 10,000 voters.

[2] By 'eligible voters' are those citizens meant who where allowed to vote. Which means that only males of twentyone years of age and older are counted. Women and children are not counted. Thus a delegate represents rather 40,000 citizens.

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As anyone can see by looking at the map, there is some serious immigration going on in Patagonia. And while immigration as a whole is very good it seems very unlikely that all those immigrants will be going to the rather unfertile lands in the south. Roughly a million people is living on Tierra del Fuego, which makes the island eight times as densely populated as it is today in our timeline.
Therefore, with your discretion, I will be 'transferring' POPs to the La Plata region.

Yay this is the 50th official update! Unwrap the celebration emoticons. What? What do you mean by 'there is no celebration emoticon'? Darn them!