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:
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:
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.
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.
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: