And now for a very overdue update! Good thing AARs aren't graded like school assignments, right?
Chapter III: Peace at Home, War Abroad (1840-1845)
On January 1, 1840, the French Foreign Legion, British Auxiliary Legion, and Portuguese Legion were officially mustered out of service. These formations comprised a strength, on paper, of thirty-two thousand men, which happened to be a relatively sizable percentage of the Spanish Army. While these formations were, at least nominally, entirely comprised of French, British, and Portuguese men respectively, in practice all of them had seen casualties replaced by Spanish conscripts. In addition to diplomatic considerations (it being judged that the respective governments would not look kindly on their citizens serving in the Spanish army any longer than absolutely necessary), it was argued that purely Spanish divisions should be formed comprising a mix of veterans of existing formations with the conscripts called up to replace the British, French, and Portuguese casualties.
The disbanding of these formations reduced the Army of the North commanded by
Mariscal de campo Narváez to just under half of its strength, including the unfortunate loss of the artillery that had been attached to the British Auxiliary Legion. The French Foreign Legion, which had been garrisoned in Valencia, fragmented, with some of the men opting to remain in Spain while others returned to France or French Algeria. On the same date, the army and navy were officially cut to 50% of their maximum strength.
The British Legion, French Foreign Legion, and Portuguese Legion before being disbanded
The Cristino Army of the North was renamed the Army of Spain. After several weeks of debate in the Cortes, the education budget was increased, effective from January 15.
The campaign for the 1840 election, like any other election, saw several debates over the future direction of the nation. Perhaps prompted by the recent end to the Carlist War, the military seemed to have a prominent part in most of these debates. Arguments for reducing the size of the military and using the money thus freed for economic development were opposed by arguments for military expansion and adventurism.
On January 19th, there was an anti-military rally in Oveido where a previously unknown intellectual made a speech in favor of decreasing the military budget, which persuaded some of the population in Asturias and Galicia to a similar view. A few months later there was a rally with opposite intentions in New Castile, where on April 19 a rally saw a speech from a purported resident of Ceuta and a report from a resident of Melilla of Moroccan raids on these cities. The speakers at this event urged the Spanish Government to take military action against Morocco to secure the land around these Spanish territories. News broke of a corrupt politician in Saragossa on July 21, only a few weeks before the election was scheduled to begin. The Progressive Party, which had been in power since early 1836, won the elections in early August.
At roughly the same time, the Whigs led by the Viscount Melbourne won the general election in the United Kingdom.
On October 28, the Opium War ended after China and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland signed the Treaty of Shanghai. In Spain, the last surviving member of an old noble family died on the same day, and since no surviving relatives could be located his property reverted to the government.
In the United States, the Democrats under Martin van Buren won the 1840 Presidential election in early November.
Negotiation between Spain and the Ottoman Empire resulted in a delegation of Spanish officers departing for Constantinople on November 24 to help the Ottoman Army set up a modern military staff system. In exchange, the Ottomans paid Spain the equivalent of 11% of the Spanish currency reserves at the time. Spain also improved its relations with France and the United States.
On March 1, 1841 construction began on a mission in the
Islas del Arzobispo (today known as the Bonin Islands). Later that month, new infantry regiments recruited from Manila and the surrounding countryside began training on March 25 in the Philippines after sufficient small arms had been shipped to Manila from Spain.
The development of a practical steam engine was announced on April 17. Nine days later, the Federal Republic of Central America began to fall apart on April 26 after Honduras declared its independence and declared war on the Federal Republic of Central America. Shortly thereafter, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua also declared their independence from the Federal Republic of Central America, leaving only the territory that would eventually become known as Guatemala under the authority of the Central American government.
The new infantry division, named the 1st Filipino Infantry Division (supposedly in honor of the unit that had been defeated at the Battle of Leyte), entered service on July 25.
On March 28 1842 the Republic of Texas applied to join the United States of America. The United States indicated it would accept Texas as a state, in spite of Mexican protests.
Much of the time after the Progressive victory in the 1840 election was spent peacefully managing the country. On August 16 a report on the structure of the Spanish economy, and possible changes, was presented to the Council of Ministers. On August 19 Honduras and Guatemala signed the Treaty of Tegucigalpa, resulting in Guatemala ceding Vera Paz to Honduras and agreeing to pay war reparations to Honduras until August 1843.
On October 2 the British East India Company went to war against Kashmir. On October 8, a prominent newspaper attacked the government. On December 6 Texas was officially accepted into the United States of America, which caused Mexico to declare war on the United States.
On January 1, 1843, a new infantry division finished training in Spain. On March 19, the Guardia Civil was created.
Interlude: Before the War
During the years between the defeat of the Carlists and the Brunei War, the Spanish Army of the East Indies had not been completely idle. While the Filipino infantry were primarily garrisoned on Luzon to keep order near Manila, in 1840 the Ministry of War had requested a report on the states of the Far East from Serrano, the commander of the Army of the East Indies. For the most part, relatively little could be learned about most of the Asian states - Japan was still isolated under the Shogunate and refused to have any dealings with foreigners, aside from a very small amount of trade with the Dutch, while China was fighting the Opium War with Britain. The Dutch were attempting to consolidate and expand their territories in the East Indies, while Annam and Siam were not exactly welcoming Europeans with open arms either. Few of the attempts made to glean information from traders were successful, as there were relatively few Spanish vessels engaged in trade in the East Indies and the few European traders that volunteered information supplied information of dubious validity. Finally, the decision was made to bring order to Brunei due to its weakness, proximity to the Philippines, and strategic location.
The Brunei War (April 1 1843 - August 25 1844)
An incident where a Spanish vessel was attacked by pirates near Sarawak proved to be the spark that set off the war. Citing the apparent inability of the Sultanate of Brunei to control piracy, the Kingdom of Spain declared war on the Sultanate of Brunei on April 1, 1843. The East Indies Squadron, consisting of the frigate
Santa Sabina and a flotilla of transport ships, loaded the 2nd Filipino Infantry Division and landed near Unsun on April 26. While the 2nd Filipino Infantry were bringing that area under Spanish control, the East Indies Squadron returned to Manila to pick up the 1st Filipino Infantry Division. On May 21 the 1st Filipino Infantry finished landing near Unsun and Unsun was officially brought under Spanish control on July 2.
The Army of the East Indies then began to move towards Bandar Brunei and arrived outside the city on July 28, immediately beginning to engage the Guard of the Sultan of Brunei.
On August 14, an insult by a British diplomat did not receive a reply from the Spanish government.
On August 16, after more than two weeks of fighting near Bandar Brunei, the Spanish Army of the East Indies withdrew to Unsun and requested reinforcements from the Phillippines. The Army of the East Indies arrived in Unsun on September 5. The Sultan of Brunei offered Maraboo and Unsun, approximately half of the land under his nominal control, to Spain in exchange for peace, but this was judged as insufficient and the offer was rejected. After several thousand recruits had been conscripted and transported to Unsun, the Army of the East Indies again began to move towards Bandar Brunei and arrived outside the city on November 11, where they were again engaged by the Sultan’s Guard. This time, however, rather than the two forces being roughly equivalent, numerically, the Spanish forces were at full strength (theoretically, there were 20,000 men under arms, though some percentage of these had been lost to desertion or disease), while the Guard of the Sultan was only roughly half as strong. They did, however, have a better grasp of the terrain. Undoubtedly, this is some of the reason that the Spanish fought in and around Bandar Brunei for nearly four months, until the Sultan’s Guard finally vacated Bandar Brunei and retreated to Maraboo to the south-west. It took another several months to pacify the countryside near Bandar Brunei.
Elsewhere, a report on medicine was presented to the Council of Minsters in November 1843. A division of volunteer infantry was formed in Madrid on February 16 and the Archbishop Islands were officially brought under Spanish control on March 1, 1844.
Back in Brunei, the Sultan again offered Maraboo and Unsun in exchange for peace in early May, and again the offer was rejected out of hand.
On May 9 Bandar Brunei was occupied and the Army of the East Indies began to move towards Maraboo, where they arrived on May 27 and engaged the Guard of the Sultan. The Battle of Mukah only lasted two days and was a conclusive Spanish victory. It took approximately a month to secure Maraboo, and it took another two weeks for the Army of the East Indies to arrive in Sarawak, where the Battle of Sarawak only lasted two days (July 14-July 16), ending with a Spanish victory and the capture of the Sultan. It took about a month for the last Bruneian territory to be brought under Spanish control.
On July 25 Egypt ceded Dimashq, Amman, Halab, and Alexandretta to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for peace. On August 2 it was announced that the campaign for the 1845 elections officially began. On August 18 Sarawak was secured and a week later the Sultan agreed to cede Sarawak, Maraboo, and Unsun to Spain in exchange for peace.
On October 19 a debate over trade in León saw protectionist arguments prevail. Reports of corruption in Bonin reached Manila in mid-November.
After the Brunei War the Army of the East Indies was garrisoned in Spanish Borneo to prevent any attempts at rebellion. General Serrano, in his final reports on the war to the Ministry of War and the Governor General of the Philippines, concluded that the majority of Spanish casualties were due to disease and lack of familiarity with the swampy and mountainous territory of Brunei, rather than enemy action, and was cautiously optimistic that, given time, soldiers from Spanish Borneo would faithfully serve under the Spanish flag.
Spanish Borneo and the Sultanate of Brunei as of September 2, 1844