Chapter 9: The Haitian Renaissance
As the election of 1855 came to an end, Parti Liberal began to install its politicians into the Presidential Cabinet. We received some nice immediate benefits...
First, the Free Trade policy enables our traders to operate without the influence of our government. Basically meaning that they can buy goods more easily than before. It also allows new changes in the tariff policy, but that is somewhat inconsequential, as we will never reach the minimum or maximum with either policy.
Next Interventionism is vastly superior to State Capitalism in many regards. There are no restrictions in regards to taxation so we can finally give our middle and upper strata a serious break from taxes, and without being forced to lower the poor taxes. We can also build railroads, invest in projects, and subsidize just as before, even factory maintenance is reduced... the only singular downside is that we cannot initiate factory construction, we must rely on our capitalist.
We still have Moralism, which is actually kinda nice since 100% of our citizens are catholic anyways.
In regards to citizenship policy, we have changed from Residency to Full Citizenship so now all cultures can vote and we get the maximum assimilation bonus. Now all of the states will be included in the Parliament in the future.
Finally, the military policy. We have moved from Jingoism to Pro-Military which is only a slight step down in terms of raising armies. With the addition of the Venezuelan regions, we should have more than enough soldiers to compensate for this loss.
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Parti Liberal's first order of business was to continue diplomatic negotiations with Brazil and initiating discussions with Peru as well.
The budget needed some attention with the new policies and here is a look on April 29, 1856;
Still maintaining a barely positive budget with 0% taxes on the middle and rich strata. Although education funding isn't as high as we would like, literacy is growing much faster than you would presume by the budget. We are hastily approaching 4.0% clergy nationwide.
Nothing much happens in the summer of 1856, but then by October we are approached with some great news;
Impressionism, giving us the possibility to discover some very important cultural technologies.
Hopefully we can make those discoveries fast and improve our prestige and rank significantly.
By May of the following year we finally have some important news to share;
Very nice! This will help our citizens with a new belief of self confidence. Our people are beginning to expand the boundries of their tools and traditions, helping to usher in a new age of discovery and prestige. If nothing else it will ensure we remain a secondary power for awhile to come.
As education funding begins to rise, it becomes increasingly hard to maintain a positive budget. Its decided that in order to continue to fund our educational program we need to increase our budget capabilities. This means either better tax efficiency or increased RGO production.
So research takes a new direction and in November we receive news of our efforts;
It helps the budget, and its nice to have for in the future. We will need that increased RGO production to fuel our industries at some point.
The winter of 1857 was largely forgettable, and so was most of 1858 other than some Venezuelan Liberation Movement suppression in July.
By September 26, 1858 our budget is doing quite well and we get another status report;
The big difference here is we are starting to ween the budget off of its tariff reliance, while actually increasing the budget surplus.
Its a big win for the country. Education spending is slowly increased as the treasury grows as well.
Then we discover another major technology;
Increasing our diplomatic influence, RGO output, and decreasing the RGO size. All very important things to us currently.
The budget increases even more, and education funding is allowed to go higher than ever before.
By February 1859 we are more than double our initial literacy rate. Growing faster then ever before, hopefully there is still time to catch up.
Diplomatic efforts continue, mostly in our neighboring South American countries.
USA and UK's war over Hawaii ended in white peace to much surprise sometime earlier, but we lost the record of exactly when. Early in 1859 a war breaks out between the USA and Mexico. Columbia also joins in on Mexico's side, while USA has USCA and Liberia in their sphere and allied. Most of the nations involved requested military access from Haiti but only USA was granted because they are the only one with an army we fear.
Then on May 15, we have a devastating setback;
San Fernando gets an outbreak of Cholera. We quarantine the province, but nevertheless tens of thousands die.
In July of 1859 we have discovered yet another major technology;
Our tiny contingent of capitalist are still pretty poor and generating funds for the first factories for Haiti, so there isn't much effect. Really just something we felt we should have a basic level of at this point just in case we do have extra funds to build.
As conditions continue to get better, a few more immigrants decide to come to Haiti.
Not much but at least it proves our efforts have not been wasted. Strangely, Argentina and Bolivia, both presidential dictatorships with about 0 reforms are getting all the immigrants. Even more than the USA... maybe their RGO's are vacant and very profitable or something.
August 11, 1859, it comes to a boiling point and some Gran Colombian Nationalist have finally risen.
Strangely though, only 1 regiment rallied. When our main army approached, they disbanded and ended their cause.
I guess they were expecting some puny Venezuelan army, not the mighty Haitian army.
Then only a week later on August 17 we receive more bad news;
Sweden has located the famed white flower before us. Blast!
By November we have made another fine discovery; Impressionist Art, giving us even more prestige and rank. The 2nd Election in Haitian history is also beginning, and the election results will be in on May 16, 1860!
We basically run the same political campaign as before, trying to maintain Parti National, whilst making sure Parti Liberal wins the vote.
The new year passes with no major controversies, and the next major event doesn't occur until April;
A local politician has been caught in a love affair. I guess we caught him with his pants down.
A few weeks later the election is over and we have our result;
Parti Liberal gained a little too much support, but I guess the people were excited about being pro-military.
By August 11, 1860 we have discovered another major technology;
Just perpetuating our ever increasing budget and educational gains. Smaller discoveries continue to trickle in.
By October some of our policies are starting to pay off and we have a concordat with the Vatican.
Prestige, relations, and decreased militancy in a pop type we are trying to promote heavily. Its pure harmony.
1860 ends without much interesting going on domestically. The upper house is still mostly conservative, education and the economy have been growing steadily.
In January 1861, we receive word from Sweden that a young man by the name of Karl Marx has published the "Communist Manifesto" creating a stir that lead to one of the worlds first communist parties.
Then in July of 1861, our Foreign Minister informs us that we have not yet signed the Geneva Convention.
We can still sign it of course, and do. The year comes to an end with little to report. The early months of 1862 were largely undramatic as well, with only continued education and diplomacy. On May 16, we receive even more great news, this time from Peru;
They will now allow us military access within their borders. I wonder where this might be leading...
And on June 16, 1862 we discover another major technology;
Allowing us to develop technologies even faster in the future! The last several years have marked great advances in science and education. Its been a time of great growth and development in terms of our culture and prestige. Perhaps with this niche Haiti can continue to make new developments and increase its rank in the world in the future.