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@Sakura_F: *cough* We are an empire...

@John Forseti: Did you... read ahead?...

@TKFS: I am. They are the reason I cut off with the USA and am now scrambling to raise relations with them.

@King50000: If the Confederate Behemoth ever dies down, then I'll consider Eastward expansion. The Confederate Army out weights me 5 to 1, and has 150 ships. The Union has 29. I have about 30.
 
I knew taking Hawaii was the way to go. Next stop - THE PHILLIPINES!

California needs to be an Empire threw all parts of the Pacific.
 
@atomicsoda: I had completely forgotten about that. How odd...

@Tommy4ever: If I remember correctly, I think that the British just recently dumped the Spanish Alliance... hmm...

@Tian: Thanks! Sadly, no, California hovers around 18 and 19th place. I've been trying to get prestige up so I can colonize the Pacific.

@Heroicnoodles: I've been dying to write one! Unlike my other AAR (At the moment) I don't need to play the game to update it. For Empire of the Pacific, I just don't have the 5-6 hours it takes for me to sit down, play, and write the update. However, this weekend looks prospective for me to churn out an update for this AAR.
 

Williams: 1876 - 1881


Since his speech, aptly titled the "Proclamation of an Empire", former President Giddings received massive amounts of opposition from people nationally and internationally. Few people liked the idea of calling California an Empire, it was a small state, holding a fraction of North America's pacific coast, and only just recently secured control of a small island chain in the Pacific Ocean. Even more so, the Populist Party, that of which President Williams was from, said that to have an Empire, one must need an Emperor, something that they vehemently oppose, as they were behind and part of the movement that brought direct democracy to the Californian Republic.

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1. Territory of the Californian Republic, January 1st, 1876.

However, following President Giddings speech and after his inauguration, President Williams appealed to the Californian Congress to take into account an upgrading and refitting of all the Naval Bases in the nation. With only two operating naval bases, in San Francisco and San Diego, President Williams felt that opening even more bases would help the booming need for naval refitting and re-coaling stations for the nation. He also proposed that a civilian commerce port be erected alongside the Naval Base, allowing more places for products and people to enter into the Californian Republic.

On March 7th, 1876, the Californian Congress almost unanimously passed the Port and Harbour Act of 1876, which allowed for the allocation of funds for the construction of five new naval and commerce ports, as well as an upgrading of the current facilities at San Diego and San Francisco. The Hawaii Territory was also included in this bill, where the deep-water area called Pearl Harbour was sanctioned to become the first deep-water Pacific Port of the Californian Republic. A massive amount of money was put into this port, as it would now serve as the centre for communications and logistics for all Californian vessels traveling in the Pacific Ocean.

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2. Ships in Humboldt Bay, location of a new Naval Base and Commerce Port.

On June 13th, 1876, a message was received by President Williams by the Confederate Government; They were declaring War on the United States of America to claim the disputed region of West Virginia for the Confederacy. They asked the Californian Republic to assist in the war, but only to raid commerce and shipping of the United States in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. President Williams, sensing a great victory at hand, accepted the invitation to war.

The war began with a Confederate surge into the North, quickly crossing the Potomac River and capturing a few key forts. This army, called the Army of Northern Virginia, was led by Veteran General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, his cunning ability to maneuver troops led to large victories early in the war. Within the first four months, Jackson's Army of Northern Virginia claimed over 50,000 United States Soldiers dead or sent to Prison Camps[1].

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3. Confederate Soldiers after capturing a Fort on the United States side of the Potomac River.

When early fall befell California, a tragedy struck a small port town in Northern California. Hendersonville, a quite fishing community, was assaulted by the guns of the USS Defiance, destroying the town and killing half the population. Given that this town had no military value and was populated by civilians, the outrage exploded in California over this attack. Christopher Bailey, the local lighthouse keeper, vividly recounted the scene as he was watching from up at his perch. The Defiance sailed into view shortly after sunset, where it proceed to sink a fishing vessel coming in for the night. It then swooped closer to shore where its batteries destroyed the town. He remarked that the "Night turned to day" during the five hours the ship pummeled the shore line. It wasn't until shortly after 3 A.M. that the ship hurried away into the night.

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4. Wagner Point, the lighthouse that witnessed the assault by the USS Defiance.​

Immediately both the Confederate and Californians governments lobbied the United States of America for their egregious act of unprovoked warfare against the civilian population. There was never an official response given, although members of the United States Congress expressed their gratitude that California was stricken, calling it a "Rightful Punishment" for going against the will of the United States.

This left a problem for the Californian Navy, they had to seek and destroy this ship so that it would never again threaten the Californian Coast line. All throughout the winter and the spring of 1877, the Californian Navy scoured the sea, looking for any sign of the USS Defiance. Finally, in March of 1877, The CRS San Diego and CRS Bear Flag found the USS Defiance re-supplying in Vancouver, British Colombia. Ever patient, the two Californian ships waited for a week until the American ship came out of the harbor, willing to try and fight her way out. The battle began early Sunday morning, with the Defiance launching a salvo at the San Diego. The Bear Flag responded with a similar salvo while the San Diego charged full steam towards the Defiance. A large ship, the Defiance could not get out of the way in time and took a full, head-on, ram from the San Diego, which then proceeded to pound the side of the ship with her guns. The Defiance sunk in twelve minuets, killing nearly everyone on board the mighty vessel. The Californian ships simply turned and headed back to port, leaving the stranded Americans no place to go.

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5. CRS San Diego sinking the USS Defiance.​

Although this seemed like a great victory for the Californian Republic, trouble was afoot with the land war between the Confederacy and the United States. As it turned out, early march brought the might of the American Guns to bear on the feeble Confederacy. Northern Virginia was occupied by the United States Army, fighting on the outskirts of Richmond came in early April, most of Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky was under Union Control, and the Western Territories just saw the prime Confederate Army collapse and paroled by the US Army.

Crisis befell the Californian Congress and President Williams as they scrambled to try and get a peace between the two nations. President Williams sent Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry Jarvis to Washington, D.C. to discuss terms and conditions of a peace between the two nations. Negotiating didn't take long as Jarvis's main goal was restoring peace. A man who despised war, he was willing to sacrifice a lot of ground for peace. Finally, an agreement was reached. The Californian Republic would pay $15 Million in damages for sinking the USS Defiance, open up all Californian Ports for re-coaling and re-supplying of United States Ships, and agree to enter into an Alliance with the United States of America.

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6. Minister of Foreign Affairs Henry P. Jarvis, the man who brokered the peace deal between the United States and California.

An uproar came from both the Confederates and the War-Hawks in the Californian Congress. They hated to see such humiliating terms handed down to the Californians, even after such a great victory was won on the high seas. President Williams claimed this was in the best interest of peace and humilitaty for the nation - there was no way they could match the all might of the United States, which was currently trampling the Confederate States on both land and sea.

Once the news of peace receded from the minds of Californians, an unfortunate event brought the nation to mourning. Former President John Wagner was found dead in his home at the age of 78 on July 18th, 1877. His death caused thousands of Californians to come out in support of their former President. He was currently living in the small port town of Milford, Baja California, but his family suggested that he should be buried in San Diego, a city he spent much of his life in, helping grow and develop. In response, a Funeral Procession was announced that would being President Wagner's body from Milford up to San Diego. Along the way, thousands of Californians lined the streets to pay final respects to their fallen President. The largest crowd drew from San Diego, where an estimated 80% of the population came out to either watch his casket go past or see his final burial[2].

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7. Funeral Procession of former President John Wagner passing through San Diego.

During the late summer of 1877, the United States Army won at the Battle of Chattanooga, which ended all hopes of the Confederacy holding together as a fighting power. The President of the Confederacy, James Longstreet, meet with the President of the United States, Winfield Scott Hancock, in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss terms of surrender. President Longstreet was effective in negotiating with President Hancock. The Confederacy would be recognized as an Independent Nation, but the Western Territories, excluding New Mexico and Arizona, would be handed over to the United States, as well as the States of Kansas, Missouri, and Kentucky. For doing this, the United States would relinquish their claims on the Confederacy.

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8. Battle of Chattanooga, the decisive United States Victory over the Confederate States, which ended the War.

In the Hawaii Territory, Governor Gallo took great pride in opening up Pearl Harbour, the nation's newest naval base. From here, any ship could resupply and rearm. It had an effective range of half the Pacific Ocean, something that Californians took great pride in. Within months of opening up Pearl Harbour, waves of immigrants from Japan and Korea landed on the island, accounting for almost 10% of the islands population[3].

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9. Pearl Harbour in early 1878.

From this naval base, immigrants coming from California were much better equipped to land, without the fear of not having an adequate place to disembark, immigration to Hawaii from the mainland shot up. As a result, the island became a hub for Californian travelers. Slowly, Pear Harbour became the launching pad of a groups of Californians branching out and settling new islands. This slow colonization period became known as the "Colonization of the Hawaiian Islands". Though not part of the Hawaiian islands main chain, these islands were grouped with Hawaii due to the similar native population and relative location to Hawaii. These were called the Wake and Midway Islands. A bill was introduced, but shelved, in the Californian Congress to add these areas to the Territory of Hawaii.

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10. Sketch of Wake Island before the Californian Settlement.

On the Mainland, President of Jamous Steel Works, Andrew Jamous announced that in the past five years of operating in Northern California, his company had achieved a remarkable feat. The Jamous Steel Company had been able to buy out all of its competitors in the area, giving Mr. Jamous complete control over the steel market in Northern California. This then heralded the notice that he would begin selling cheap, high quality steel to Southern California, to compete directly with Howard Industries[4]. This caused an irritated Senator James Howard to propose a bill that would force the break up of the Jamous Steel Company, only to retract it when language was added that would destroy his company as well. Former presidential candidate Joshua Creswell then gave a speech vilifying the rise of Monopolies in California, claiming that they will bring nothing but strike and hard times ahead.

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11. Jamous Steel Works outside Eureka, California, showing an explosive growth from five years ago.

This attention paid to Howard Industries suddenly became quite the public affair, and many people divulged into the vast scope of Howard Industries. Responsible for 10% of the Californian Republic's GDP, Howard Industries was a massive behemoth of a company. It controlled a wide array of businesses, mostly from raw materials to finished products, and had a 55% control on all of the railway track in Southern California. A typical warehouse store in Mariposa, California, was 99% filled with goods from Howard Industries. Howard Industries had grown so large that they built a railroad from San Diego to Dallas, Texas on their own dime to ship fruit from California to the heart of the Confederacy.

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12. A fruit train waiting to leave on the San Diego-Dallas Railroad.

Forced to defend his position, Senator Howard proclaimed that his mission was to bring good to people that a smaller company could not afford, and if the prices had to be raised a bit in order to keep this service to the small towns away from the shore, then so be it. As it turns out, the majority of the people agreed with Senator Howard. A large part of the population was either employed by Howard Industries or relied on their products to survive each day.

To try and pacify the people who continued to attack his company, Senator Howard decided to purchase a huge parcel of land to the South of San Diego, which he called Howardville. He set up small sections of land for half of what he paid for it. At the same time, he funded the construction of a pier, two factories, a road network, and a train station. They were calling this new place the "City on the Sea" because of how the land was stretched out along the shoreline, with little inland areas for development.

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13. People flocking to buy land in Howardville.

When January of 1880 hit the Californian Republic, the Californian Congress, in keeping with tradition, released the official Californian Census. 974,526 able bodied men called California home. California had a total population of 3,897,935 people, which was not surprising considering the major growth the country has seen since the late 1850s[5]. There was also a trend towards a higher percentage of people calling themselves Californians. Even with the population growth and immigration, 68.9% of all people now identified themselves as Californian, a .5% increase from five years ago. Surprisingly, there was a small movement towards the Farmer-Laborer party in the minds of the Californians, as seen in the mid-term elections. It would not last long.

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14. Population Statistics of the Californian Republic, 1880.

The Campaign of 1880 got off to an explosive start, when the Populist-Free Soul Party nominated President Williams once again for office, but he wholeheartedly refused to accept the nomination. They became divided on who to support, and eventually the party split into the Populist Candidate of Harold Kemper, from Baja California, and the Free Soilers settled on Wade Baxton, a manager of one of Howard Industries many factories in San Diego. The Farmer-Laborer Party decided to protest the election in an effort to keep their supporters from voting and thus plunging the election to the Californian Congress, where they could control the election, as they controlled the Californian Congress.

Unfortunately for them, this did not happen. The race quickly turned into a heated debate, where Populist Harold Kemper captured the more liberal side of the Californians, while Baxton received support from the Conservative factions, including the Farmer-Laborer party. On election day, Kemper was campaigning for a last push in San Diego, when a man approached him with his arm outstretched for him to shake. Instead of shaking his hand, he took out a revolver and shot Kemper in chest, wounding him. The killer was then beaten to death by one of Kemper's supporters with a cane.

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15. Assassination of Harold Kemper.

In a cruel twist of fate, Kemper lost both his life and the election on the same day. With help from the Farmer-Laborer Party, Wade Baxton was elected President of the Californian Republic, where he deeply condemned the assassination of his opponent and friend. In a sad sense, when the results came back, it turned out Kemper had won the city of San Diego with almost 65% of the votes. President-elect Baxton vowed to keep the memory of Kemper alive, but he also looked towards the future. He was determined to get the islands of Wake and Midway under Californian Control, and vowed to continue the spread of Californian Territory all over the Pacific Ocean.

Previous Update: Williams: 1871 - 1876
Next Update: Baxton: 1881 - 1886

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Author's Note(s)
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[1] - The most infamous one at Andersonville had a casualty rate of 76%.

[2] - This was the largest funeral in North America ever recorded. It was attended by several dignitaries, including Senator Abraham Lincoln of the United States of America.

[3] - Interestingly enough, these immigrants made it to Hawaii using makeshift rafts.

[4] - Howard & Wagner Industries had it's name changed to Howard Industries after the dead of former President John Wagner.

[5] - OTL State of California boasted 864,694 persons in 1880.
 
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Really terrific stuff. Where do you get the names of some of your officials? I've never heard of Baxton, I know many come from The Presidents, obviously :D
 
@Avindian: Anything not from the Presidents comes from my own head

@King50000: *Coughs* I don't see what your talking about. CLEARLY it said President-Elect Baxton all along *cough*
 
Another awesome update. Glad to see the US resurge agains the CSA, but its a shame they didn't finish them off.
 
I know you like to roleplay, but you missed some nice land my siding with the Confederates in that one...

...

...

Annnnd, I forgive you ;-), hopefully your pacific acquisitions will make up for the lack of inward expansion. Perhaps even an Oregon is in your future?...
 
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@TKFS: I think they'll finish them off sooner or later. I for one was surprised at the amount of War goals they added on.

@zagoroth: Hell, I had no clue the Confederates where a Paper Tiger. When I allied with them, they had about three times as many brigades as the United States and had (and still do) 100 more ships than the Union. I was dumbfounded when I saw them collapse, I wrote as the war progressed, you can tell I though they'd steamroll right in.

@the_hdk: Thanks! Always good to have grateful readers.
 
@TKFS: I think they'll finish them off sooner or later. I for one was surprised at the amount of War goals they added on.

@zagoroth: Hell, I had no clue the Confederates where a Paper Tiger. When I allied with them, they had about three times as many brigades as the United States and had (and still do) 100 more ships than the Union. I was dumbfounded when I saw them collapse, I wrote as the war progressed, you can tell I though they'd steamroll right in.

The US always does. They're reaching steamroller mass, as they usually do around 1880.

As for the Confederate collapse, the rebels probably have a majority in trained regular units, but when it comes to mobilizable and untrained regulars, the US probably flies past them. And for some reason the CSA's military fortunes go from incredible in the first war to "oooh, that's gotta hurt" in later wars, at least in my experience.

Great update, and the 1880s are here! If memory serves, Harrison's right around the corner.
 
@BigBadBob: "Every Empire Needs an Emperor"
 
@BigBadBob: "Every Empire Needs an Emperor"

Could this be... wait a minute...

Am I going to be TTL's version of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton of California? :rofl:
 
Well dammit BBB, you've motivated me to start writing the next update to introduce Harrison. Update might come sometime today.
 
Well dammit BBB, you've motivated me to start writing the next update to introduce Harrison. Update might come sometime today.

Excellent. My subtle powers of suggestion prevail again!

Can't wait to see the update. :)
 
California needs the Emperor Norton I! Come on: DO IT.