Bolivar's Dream: A Colombian AAR

[Capibara]

Bolivar's Dream: A Colombian AAR

"It is a grandiose idea to think of consolidating the New World into a single nation, united by pacts into a single bond. It is reasoned that, as these parts have a common origin, language, customs, and religion, they ought to have a single government to permit the newly formed states to unite in a confederation. But this is not possible. Actually, America is separated by climatic differences, geographic diversity, conflicting interests, and dissimilar characteristics. How beautiful it would be if the Isthmus of Panamá could be for us what the Isthmus of Corinth was for the Greeks! Would to God that some day we may have the good fortune to convene there an august assembly of representatives of republics, kingdoms, and empires to deliberate upon the high interests of peace and war with the nations of the other three-quarters of the globe. This type of organization may come to pass in some happier period of our regeneration. But any other plan, such as that of Abbé St. Pierre, who in laudable delirium conceived the idea of assembling a European congress to decide the fate and interests of those nations, would be meaningless."

Simón Bolívar, Carta de Jamaica, 1815

On September 6th, 1815, in Kingston, Símon Bolívar wrote a letter where, among other things, he expressed his lifelong desire: too see a united Spanish America. The closer he got to this was with the formation of Gran Colombia, which would fall apart after his death. But, it shouldn't have to be that way, what if Bolívar got a little help from his friends and managed to see his dream come true? That is what this AAR is about: in barely 100 years I will try to unite all of Latin America under one flag and, who knows? If things go well I could continue and add the USA and Brazil to my American Dream, but only time will tell. I will playing with Colombia, starting on 1819 an using WWM, so I get that extra time that I need to fulfill my goals. I invite you to join me in this, my quest to unite Latin America under the Colombian banner.

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Table of Contents
I. Overview and Introduction
II. Against the Motherland
III. The Eagle from the North
IV. Arabian Wars

[L Lawliet]

First update coming soon?

[Capibara]

First update coming soon?

Of course! I was about to start playing

[Capibara]

I. Overview and Introduction

It's December, 1819, and Simón Bolívar has just been made president of the Republic of Gran Colombia. The war with Spain, at least for now, it's over. It's now time to look ahead and start planning how will make our unified American dream come true. First of all, let us see what we've got:

The Republic of Gran Colombia

We have a decent amount of land composed by which is actually Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panamá. More than enough to fulfill our initial plans. We have two armies: one in the north with 7,000 men and one in the south of just 1,000. Our navy is composed by 15 ships. Compared to our more inmediate threats, we have a small army: Spain has 67,000 troops, while Mexico has 20,000. Expanding our army should be one of the short term goals (incidentally, our first mission is to create an army).

Our ruler and advisors:

Behold our great leader!

Great libertador Simón Bolívar leads our glorious nation. May he lead us to victory. We have three decent advisors, including Andrés Bello. They should be useful now, but I'll change them later on. Talking about sliders:

Sliders and Ideas

I move towards centralisation, let's get all it's benefits! Now, let's take a look at our neighbors, which soon enough will become our enemies:

Our neighbors

North of us, is the young Mexican Republic, who is still struggling to free from Spanish dominance. In the Caribbean, we have Spanish presence in the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Our brothers will be liberated from the Spanish iron rule soon. East, we have some British colonies, which will be left alone. I have no interest in fighting Britain. South, we share a border with Spanish Peru and the Brazil, which is still under Portuguese rule. Spain is facing a lot of revolts in Bolivia, may they succeed. In the southermost part of the continent, four countries wait to be united: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Liga Federal (Uruguay). They aren't a threat now and should be left alone for now.

It all seems perfect to expand our rule from San Francisco to the Patagonia, but we have a couple of problems: All our provinces, except for Pánama and Cumana, lack of any type of land fort, which makes us vulnerable to invasions, so I start by building a fort in Quijos and Tumbes. But bad news keep coming: some peasants decide to rebel and defeat my army in Caquetá:

Look where they're heading! There go 46 ducats and my fort!

This start a chase across all our southern, unfortified, territories. While my soldiers deal with the rebels, Mexico finally achieves its independence, loosing Campeche and Sayultecas in the process. At least they are independent now. I make alliances with both Portugal and Argentina, they will be useful to deal with Spain later on:

However, I decline alliance offers from both Chile and Liga Federal, it wouldn't be too intelligent allying ourselves with all the countries I want to annex. The rebels keep wracking my southern provinces until I'm able to intercept them in Guayaquil and defeat them:

After defeating them, I proceed to start builiding the forts again. In other news, somehow I got a COT in Caquetá and Mexico guaranteed my independence. Finally, I get two excellent alliances to end the first year of Bolívars government:

The United States and Great Britain, the latter's navy will prove quite useful against Spain

[Beamed]

Oh hell yes. Good luck.

[Sectorknight21]

Subscribed, doubly so me being of Colombian descent can't wait untill the next update.

[Nodscouterr]

You should make some kind of nation forming decision like ''Form Spanish America''

[Johan11]

Whatever he said. ^
|

[PrawnStar]

*Subscribes*

I've not played WMM how does it change Vanilla in this scenario? (apart from the end date)

[Macknull]

...I never played a scenario other than from 1399 =)
I'll observe that one

[Capibara]

Oh hell yes. Good luck.

Thanks! Good to have you around

Subscribed, doubly so me being of Colombian descent can't wait untill the next update.

Welcome. Do you know where your parents/grandparents are from?

You should make some kind of nation forming decision like ''Form Spanish America''

Whatever he said. ^
|

It is an interesting idea. Perhaps later on when the AAR is more advanced, I will hold a contest to design a flag.

*Subscribes*

I've not played WMM how does it change Vanilla in this scenario? (apart from the end date)

Great to have you around. Some of the main differences are no PTI, more trade goods, some modifications to some existing provinces, as well as more countries, revolters and decisions.

...I never played a scenario other than from 1399 =)
I'll observe that one

Welcome! I hope you find this interesting.

Thanks everyone for the comments! I hope I can update this evening or tomorrow.

[Capibara]

II. Against the Motherland

December 1820

It's time to prepare our first war. And the rival is none other than our motherland, Spain. We must expel the Spanish opressors from America. But before we can go to war against them, there are certain things we have to do first, and that includes expanding our army and fortyfing our provinces, with special attention to the border and coastal ones, I don't want any nasty surprises on Cartagena or Caracas while I invade Perú. I start the preparations by building forts in Quito and Guayana and recruiting 7,000 troops. The recruitment will continue over the following three years. I have a limit of 48,000 troops, but I think that I won't need so much to defeat the Spanish armies in South America. While preparations keep advancing, a new country is welcomed:

A new enemy to gobble

Peru declared independece taking territory from Portugal, Spain and Argentina in the process. That reduces the number of provinces I must take from the Spaniards in this war. Meanwhile, all my provinces have been fortified and my army is more than ready to move against the Spanish. I don't want to get a severe stabilty hit, so I send a spy all the way to Madrid to fabricate claims. Took me three attempts, though.

A not so cheap casus belli

Now everything is ready to start the war. I have three armies in the border with Spanish Peru/Bolivia, while two cavalry armies have been positioned in the Amazon border with Portugal. The Portuguese are both allied with me and Spain, but I expect them to side with the Spaniards. The declaration of war is delivered March 19th, 1823. Of my four allies, here is the result:

Two out of four, not bad

The Brits and the Argentines decide to side up with me, while the USA and Portugal stand out. Fortunately, the Portuguese don't help Spain either, so a front closes and I can use those extra troops to sneak behind the enemy lines, crossing Brazil. France, however sides with Spain. Here is the battle plan:

Armies ready to move

The first army will move to Chanchan, while the fourth and the second, lead by Bolívar will advance to Canelos, where they should meet the main Spanish army. The Spanish don't advance to Canelos, however but to Tumbes, where the first army destroys them.

After Canelos has been taken, the 2nd army returns to Cuenca, where a Spanish army arrived, while the 4th army advances to Maynas, where they defeat another enemy army:

I defeat a couple more of Spanish armies, but reinforcements soon start to arrive to the main front. Argentina hasn't moved yet. I hope they do it soon or I could have problem. The European theatre is quiet. Spain took Gibraltar and France the Channel Isles, but the Royal Navy is doing her job and everything is fine.

More enemies arriving

To cut the enemy reinforcements, I move my 1st army to Lima while the 4th will take Huanuco before the fort is finished. The 2nd army is still finishing some routing Spanish soldiers. I meet some resistance in Huanuco, forcing me to use both the 1st and 4th armies.

The 2nd army defeats the routing enemies and proceeds to defeat the sneaky enemy that was trying to take Tumbes via Chanchan. While the battle rages in Huanuco, my Amazonian armies finally arrive and start moving towards Vilcapampa and Kanche. The battle of Huanuco ends with excellent results.

The Argentine armies are finally moving:

After the defeat of the main Spanish army at Huanuco, the war is decided, it's now a race between Colombia and Argentina to see who grabs more provinces. Several more routing Spanish armies are destroyed.

Everything is over now

While the sweeping continues in Bolivia, I have decided to open another "front": an unexpected Colombian army arrives to Cuba meeting no resistance. At least, until Havana, where a level 2 Fort will prove to be deadly. It will take almost two years to break the defenses in Havana.

During war, elections arrive and of course, the public claims for the reelection of Simón Bolívar, their libertador and hero of the current war. He should be our leader of at least four more years.

A couple of peaces are made while the siege of Havana continues. I peace out France to higher my war score and Argentina gets here prize for the participation in the war:

Finally, after almost two years and a lot of men lost in assaults and some revolts in Bolivia, the Havana falls to Colombian troops and a peace treaty is signed:

I have now effectively kicked the Spanish out of continental America, except for a little landlocked province next to Peru, which probably will fall to rebels soon enough. In a future war, I'll take the the two remaining Cuban provinces, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, unless the fall to rebels too. This war might've been easier, but the bulk of Spanish forces was in Europe, where the Royal Navy destroyed the Spanish ships and of course, there weren't any forts to assault, just a couple of them. My next wars will be against American countries, with plenty of troops to throw at me and brand new forts. So expect more challenge in the next wars. I end this update with a pic of the expanded Colombian Empire:

[SCORPIONMIRO]

Subscribed! I'm Brasilian, and I'm really looking foward for your conquest of South America!

[aldriq]

Nice first war, I take the Spaniards didn't have many forts in Peru either Until what year are you planning to play?

[Milites]

Beating Spain? Count me in

[Nodscouterr]

Nice job taking them provinces.

[L Lawliet]

Holy shit! (pardon the expression)
I didn't know they could (or even want to) give up so many of them! Well done!

[Macknull]

I like those new borders.

[Vann the Red]

Fantastic work. Count me in for the ride.

Vann

[squigian]

If the Spanish had managed to land serious reinforcements, you'd have been sunk; good job!