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Libertad o Muerte! Pt. XXV - 1854

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The election campaigns began in early september 1853 with both the Union Liberal and the Partido Federalista searching for their own profiles and topics for the campaigns. In the forefront of the election campaigns it became clear, that Prime Minister San Martín would not candidate again for office. While the Federalistas send Carlos Antonio Lopez into the race for prime minister the Union Liberal was once again indecisive about their candidate. The more conservative right wing supported the venerated former Governor Verdana while the left wing supported the young and visionary Juan Bautista Alberdi.

In November it became known to the public that secretary of commerce Bartolomé Mitre was involved in a big corruption scandal. He was incriminated to have spent a large sum to finance his brothers in law iron mine in Copiapo. Money that was originally intended for the buildup of additional factories in the Buenos Aires region. One week later Mitre resigned from Office.

During the whole month of November Alberdi travelled from one city to the next via railroad and thus managed to attend two to four different meetings and conventions per day where he spoke to the assembled masses to gain their support. This effort paid off on the national convention of the Union Liberal in early December where he was announced as his parties candidate for the office of Prime Minister.

The Movimento Progresivo recognized that they wouldn't be able to win a single seat in the upcoming election which led to a big internal crisis. The more radical left wing decided to keep the party going even if it should be a pointless effort while the more moderate right wing led by Gabriel Garramuno left the party and merged with the Union Liberal in late December.

With the coming of the new year the Federalistas began their campaigns and therefore their attacks on the Liberales in ernest. They harshly attacked the liberal ideas on a large scale, focussing on the governments taxation and market regulation policies. They focused their campaign mainly on the rural populace, farmers and mine workers, who seemed to be those who hadn't gained anything from the government policies.

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The attendees of the national convention of the Union Liberal cheering to their freshly appointed candidate for the office of Prime Minister Juan Bautista Alberdi.

The big cities seemed to be already won by the Liberales and so Alberdi spent most of his time campaigning in the countryside. With his charismatic personality and enthralling speeches he made every effort to explain the rural population that every Platinean was now in a better situation than four years ago. He stated that progress, modernization and industralisation would mean better living conditions for everybody not only for city dwellers. And that progress would only be possible with the Union Liberal in power and certainly not with a backwards looking conservative as Prime Minister.

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Alberdi during one of his many speeches while campaigning in the platinean countryside


On election day Alberdi's liberal visions beat Lopez' conservative social system. The Liberales maintained their majority in Congress with 99 seats, the exact amount they had won four years earlier. But the Federalistas more than trippled their seats by winning 72 seats in Congress, 50 seats more than in the last election. They won the four seats previously held by the PPP and 46 seats who were created due to Population growth. Whether the PPP nor the Movimento Progresivo were able to win a single seat.

While the Federalistas mainly won the rural districts the Liberales won in the big cities and in rural areas with beginning industrialisation, and in the new states of Patagonia Oriental and Tierra del Fuego.
It became obvious that the landslide success of the Liberales in the last elections was mainly so glaring due to the euphoria in the aftermath of the liberal revolution and that the political realignments now had came into being, giving the Liberales a much smaller majority in Congress.

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On the first of July King Juan I. opened the new building which would from now on house the Cortez and then inaugurated Juan Bautista Alberdi as second Prime Minister of the Platinean Kingdom. The ceremony was held outside the new building in front of a huge crowd who cheered their new Prime Minister.

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The new congressional building which houses the Cortez
 
I for one welcome our (sorta) new liberal overlords!

Mind, you probably lucked out this round with the lingering dominance from the ideological set of events. Next time is going to be even harder for the liberals to hold on to power, but after that industrialization should take care of it. For now, though, cheers to Prime Minister Alberdi and I wonder how well will such a theorist do in power this timeline.
 
I just read through this AAR, and I just want to say what a fantastic job you are doing. I look forward to reading more!
 
How do you make the pictures like the last of the National Congress? I want to reply the style.
 
How do you make the pictures like the last of the National Congress? I want to reply the style.

Looks like sepiatints to me. You could fix that through hue/saturisation in the 'Shop, not sure what route you have to follow in free programs like the GIMP, maybe someone can enlighten me.

Btw, subcribed. Go Argentinia!
 
Demokratickid: Über-Immigration? Last time I checked I got some 6,000 immigrants per month. For über-immigration I would have to steal the USA tag ;).

asd21593: Thanks fella!

Demokratickid: Very cool indeed :D! But the senate wasn't even elected this time. The governors got elected every six years (next election in 1856) who announce the senators. While the congressmen are elected every four years.

Irenicus: The Union Liberal deinately got some luck this time, but it was planned for the ideological thought 'techs' to fire right before the election though it might not be so much luck but political ingeniuity.

Viden: It's just one click, using PhotoImpact, to apply this sepia effect. What kind of GFX program doo you use?

TRP: Then welcome again!
 
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Prime Minister San Martín's term
(1850-1854)


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During his interim term as Prime Minister from the Constitutional Congress in November 1849 to the first elections in June 1850 San Martin aligned himself more and more with the liberals in his cabinet. And as the Union Liberal asked him to run for the office of Prime Minister as their candidate San Martin had mixed feelings about this offer. On the one hand he was pleased about the honour but on the other hand he knew that he was worried about his old age. Despite his concerns that he might not serve his country to his utmost due to his age and fragile health his sense of duty tipped the scales and he accepted. San Martín stated in a private letter that he was "not able to stand a side in a time were my beloved country needs my service as much as during the wars of independence." San Martín feared that the newly formed nation would quickly fall apart or at least disrupted by continuing revolts if it wouldn't be held together by a moderate and integrating government. And no one could fill out this role better than the Liberator of the nation himself.

In the aftermath of the June revolution a huge majority of platineans supported the Union Liberal just to prevent the conservative and reactionary forces to come to power again which they feared would reestablish a repressive dictatorship or absolute monarchy and thus sweep aside all the achievements of the revolution. With San Martin now officially siding with the liberals the support among the population for the Union Liberal grew even more. Every platinean man and woman knew what he had done for the country during the independence wars and was admired by most as a national hero. His candidacy made the Union Liberal electable for more conservative social groups. It is known that many priests openly supported San Martin in their sermons and that many platineans in the rural areas followed their advice. Even the aristocracy supported now San Martin and the liberals at large, for two good reasons. First it seemed unwise to put oneself in opposition to the liberator of the nation and secondly king Juan I. was in favour of a liberal government, though he never made his support public. Thus the Union Liberal won the elections on June 6th 1850 by landslide, gaining three-quarter majorities in both the congress and the senate.

The Federales now feared that the Union Liberal would use its overwhelming majority to change the constitution to their likeness. San Martin sensed this fear very early on and promised that it would not be in his intention to change but to preserve the constitution and stabilize the nation. Though not all liberals supported that statement and two times liberal backbenchers brought changes of the constitution forward to congressional debate but were'nt passed due to the lack of support from the Prime Minister and the King.
Among the first acts of the new government was the dissolution of the Order of Jesu. Despite his own concerns and those of many platineans San Martin supported this action for the terrible role the order had played during the reign of king Carlos. The protests against the dissolution ebbed out rather quick and in November 1850 the government decided to incorporate the semi-autonomous provinces of La Paz and Asuncion.

In the first days of 1851 the liberal government, foremost Secretary Alberdi, revealed their plan to increase Platineas population by one million people and its economy by 40% during the next ten years. Immediate actions were taken to encourage industrialization. Large further education programs began to teach farmers and miners the necesseray knowledge to work in factories. Thw programs showed initial succes as the first privately run factories were set up in Buenos Aires and Montevideo. To increase Platinea's population by the means of immigration the government send various agents, Bernardo Phillippi being the most prominent, to promote imigration to Platinea all over europe. And the poor and hungry masses in europe heard and followed the call. Tenthousands of immigrants came figurativly overnight to Platinea.
The discovery of coal, iron and gold deposits in Patagonia boosted immigration, especially to that region, further so that the three territories were made states in 1854. In the meantime two more factories had been established, a paper mill in Buenos Aires and a brewery in Montevideo. A students exchange program financed by the government send roughly one thousand students to european universities to acquire as much knowledge as possible to close the technological gap to the european powers. There might be no prominent benefit of this action but it helped the platinean educational sytem much to evolve.

During San Martin's term wether the army nor the navy saw any kind of improvement. On the contrary, the army units were lowered to one third of their strength and the navy's vessels were lying in their home ports for most of the time. No new technologies or strategies were introduced in that time, too. Leaving many officers in the fear that the armed forces were no longer able to compete with their counterparts in Brazil an d Peru.

The liberal government invested all the money spared of military spending in programs to boost the economical growth and education. And on the cost of almost the entire nations income the platinean industry reached their for 1860 aimed goal of an industrial capacitiy of 100 already in 1854. The influx of immigrants was higher than expected, too. And thus the goal od 5,500,000 inhabitants was nearly reached prior to the elections in June 1854.

But Platinea didn't only witnessed an unexpected economical boom but also a cultural rebirth never seen before. The new genre of 'Realism' was almost discovered in Platinea with many platinean artists and poets being its avantguard. Platinean realism came to world fame almost overnight and many well known european artists, poets and composers came to Buenos Aires to experience the heart of this new art style. The most famous of them might be Giuseppe Vivaldi who came to Buenos Aires in 1851 and who composed and revealed his play 'La Traviata' in Buenos Aires to the world in 1853. Universitary life and discoveries also added to this cultural boom. For example Panuccian Idealism, a variant of Hegelian Idealism, made its word to well known european universities like Bologna and Sorbonne in 1851.

All in all the term of San Martín was a peaceful era of huge economical and cultural progress.

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5th power in the world :eek:

Impressive :)
 
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:eek:o

replaced % with 5 now
 
What happened here Treppe? Don't forget this AAR!
 
Libertad o Muerte! Pt. XXVI - 1854

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As Alberdi took over the office of Prime Minister he faced the challenge to steer this hodgepodge of peoples and interests which made up Platinea in a brighter more prosperous future. But the biggest challenge was to keep it all together. During the last years San Martin was the glue who kept it together. But now Alberdi had taken his office but he wasn't sure if he ever would be able to take his place too. San Martín was a national hero, the most cunning military commander ever born in this land, one of the members of the independence movement and a father figure for the whole nation. Alberdi on the other hand was none of the above, he was a visionary who had great plans to shape this country and society and he was political leader who could convince masses with a few sentences.
But Alberdi also know that he had to make little steps, one after another to keep the nation and the people together. If he would rush this transformational process it would all break down into a pile of rambles.
And so only a few changes were made in cabinet and the "Agenda 1860", who was his brainchild but was credited by the media and the masses to San Martín, was continued. Alberdis visions and his promises of social reforms just had to wait a little bit longer.



Even before Alberdi was inaugurated as Prime Minister of Platinea more mineral resources were discovered in Patagonia. Some settlers of welsh origin discovered some iron ore containing rocks in Choele Choel province. It took only a month till the settlers shared their interests and founded the Cymro Mining Corporation (CMC).

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The first laborers and founders of the Cymro Mining Corporation.



In early December the increased investments in research 'facilities' like the universities payed off and another development was made in '54. Engineers at the Universidad de Buenos Aires invented the principal of interchangeable parts. A discovery which certainly would help to speed up production and increase the outcome.

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A so called "explosion chart" of a rifle (early 19th century). Interchangeable parts were first introduced in the production of locomotives and steam-engines.



Alberdi had promised better living conditions for the rural populace during his campaign and in late December of the very same year an up to this date unknown writer by the name of Ramón Ramos published his novel "The misery of the poor and the responsibility of the rich" in which he reminded the Prime Minister in particular and the upper classes in large of their promises and their responsibility towards the farmers and workers. He demanded that the Prime Minister should fullfill the once given promises to install a just system of healthcare and working law, if he wouldn't Ramos promises a huge uprising of the disappointed lower classes in the future. Furthermore he tells the entrepreuners to pay their employees better wages, not only out of pure will but those who are paid good would spend this money to buy more goods and would by that increase the profits and industrial capacity.
This novel became widely known during the following months. Alberdi who couldn't afford any of the costly social reforms he had promised during his campaign and was now loosing some of his support among the lower classes. The opposition on the other hand made this novel of social criticism their major point in parliament but not to enforce social reforms but to condemn the liberal education policy. The conservative ferderalistas accused the liberales of paving the way for a the takeover of a 'socialist' lower class.
Apart from day to day politics Queen Januária became involved in founding and funding of several charity organisations as well as the construction of several hospitals and asylums for disabled workers while King Juan I. cared about the fate of the workers and farmers too he avoided any involvement as it could have been credited as a violation of the constitution.

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Quanto got me motivated again ;). Honestly real life is quite exhausting at the moment. Just the usual stuff like university, girlfriend and work plus beeing head of my fraternity. So don't expect neither many nor extended updates for some more time. But this is definately not dead.

Tommy4ever: Yeah 5th power in the world is quite a bit. Thanks to my discovery of Romanticism I made quite a leap from 7th to 5th. Maxing out prestige points in the future will be definately a good way to keep greatpower status.

asd21593: Thanks :) well Argentina is not as easy as let's say Prussia :D but i also managed once to control nearly all of africa with 'Transvaal'. Which was much more challenging. I ended up 5th or something like that.

Mattabasta: Thats (partly) right. Many events didn't give me real advantages but are just for flavor. Without any selfmade events I may lose one or two ranks but thats it. And I'm not doing a gameplay aar so I'm not concerned about my ranking so much I rather like to show you an enjoyable alternate timeline.

Viden: Yeah, you have woken me up! :) I hope your not to disappointed of me due to my long absence.

Demokratickid: Your right your right *mumbles*. Seems that I wasn't the only one who vanished for some weeks.

Quanto: I agree there's much left to do. And I'll doing it (at least a part or two ;) ). Thanks for your nomination! Man I think thats the first ever in the ACA's.

Sarcastik: Make it 11-07-2009 23:41. Oh and welcome!
 
Demokratickid: Your right your right *mumbles*. Seems that I wasn't the only one who vanished for some weeks.

Yeah, I guess we're both in on that one... :D Great update sir! :)