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Spectre48

Second Lieutenant
49 Badges
Feb 22, 2011
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Hey guys. Here's an AAR I'm going to be doing about the United States. This is my second AAR (The first is here) so feel free to tell me what you think. Hope you enjoy it!

Empire of Liberty





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In 1796, George Washington, the first president of the new United States of America, decided against running for a third term. This set the precident for each of the elected presidents from John Adams to John Quincy Adams to only remain in office for two terms. In 1835, a uniform date for choosing presidential electors was instituted by the Congress after pressure from Jackson. The new date for elections would be the first of January in years divisible by four.

By the time Andrew Jackson's second term was nearing it's end in the same year, the United States was at a crossroads. There were growing tensions in Mexico over the independence of Texas. Mexico had declared war on the republic on October 2nd, 1835, and the United States seemed to have an opportunity secure their new status as one of the greatest countries in the world in a war against Mexico. Jackson saw this opportunity, and decided to break with precedent and run for a third term.

On January 1st, 1836, Andrew Jackson was elected to his third term and set his eyes to the war in the south.​



http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12458505&viewfull=1#post12458505

Chapter 2: The South American Interventionhttp://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12532383&viewfull=1#post12532383http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12532383&viewfull=1#post12532383


Chapter 3: The Spanish-American Warhttp://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12625648&viewfull=1#post12625648http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12625648&viewfull=1#post12625648


Chapter 4: Age of Americahttp://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12641228&viewfull=1#post12641228http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12641228&viewfull=1#post12641228


Chapter 5: The Mexican Threathttp://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12654399&viewfull=1#post12654399http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12654399&viewfull=1#post12654399


Chapter 6: A House Dividedhttp://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12681418&viewfull=1#post12681418http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...States-AAR&p=12681418&viewfull=1#post12681418
 
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New update coming tonight. I would post now but I'm going to be attending the funeral of my brother today. He was taken by the Snoqualmie River in Washington State. Everyone keep him in your prayers!
 
Sorry to hear that Spectre! your brother will be in my thoughts.
 
@Ve3609 - Thank you, I do appreciate it.

@ Seek75 - I'm not sure I know what you mean by 'another one of those "American Empire" stories'. This'll be a sort of an alternative history of the United States if it were more authoritarian (IE Andrew Jackson's third term), but not necessarily a dictatorship, and if it were more devoted to Manifest Destiny. I have no ideas what the outcome will be, what wars will be fought, or how the map will look in 1936, but I certainly hope to keep everyone entertained. It'll include more than just wars and my game moves. It'll contain politics and national relations, economy, etc.
 
@Ve3609 - Thank you, I do appreciate it.

@ Seek75 - I'm not sure I know what you mean by 'another one of those "American Empire" stories'. This'll be a sort of an alternative history of the United States if it were more authoritarian (IE Andrew Jackson's third term), but not necessarily a dictatorship, and if it were more devoted to Manifest Destiny. I have no ideas what the outcome will be, what wars will be fought, or how the map will look in 1936, but I certainly hope to keep everyone entertained. It'll include more than just wars and my game moves. It'll contain politics and national relations, economy, etc.

I ment with Andrew Jackson/someone else becoming Emperor or something like that. I've seen a few of those floating around, and they just kind of rub me the wrong way. Oh well, I'll stick around and see what happens.
 
@Seek75 - Oh don't worry, I have no plans on changing the form of government. If there's a successful revolution (I'll try my best to prevent it) however, I'll do my best to present it in a way that would be realistic.
 
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Empire of Liberty





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The Mexican-American War





In early January, 1836, President Jackson began to take large steps in ensuring that the United States would be in the best shape possible when war with Mexico began. All of the loans the government had been given were paid off to reduce the interest the government was paying monthly, and the government increased spending in nearly every government department. Most notably, the education and justice departments were to recieve nearly twice as much per year as they had been recieving prior to 1836 in order to create a more stable, better educated society and to catch up with some of the other great powers of the world.

Taxation had long been questionably high, and the United States budget was running at an impressive surplus. It was the middle and upper classes that were complaining the most about this excessive taxation, and it was these two classes who recieved most of the benefit of the vast reduction in taxes. The lower class wasn't left out completely from the tax cuts, though they were still paying far more than the rest of the citizens.

The last reform made on the budget was a reform that would have the government pay 5% of all the nations imports, in order to encourage industrialization and better pay for factory workers. With these changes, the United States budget was more or less balanced. Spending increased to create a more privileged society, and taxation was decreased to create a happier society, while still allowing the treasury to increase, though at a significantly lower rate than before.

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The first half of 1836 went by with the United States watching the war between Texas and Mexico closely. By June 10th, however, Lubbock and San Antonio had fallen to Mexico, and Austin, the Texan capital, was under threat. On that day, congress approved a declaration of war. The Mexcian-American War had begun.

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American troops poured into Texas, into Austin. The Mexican army had moved to El Paso after a minor defeat by Texan forces in the Battle of Lubbock and awaited reinforcements in order to move into Austin. The arrival of the US Army, however, changed their plans and put them on the defensive. The first US Army, lead by General Charles Atkins, pushed into San Antonio, retaking it from the Mexicans without a fight, while the Second US Army pushed eastward into New Mexico.

Neither the US Army in San Antonio, nor the Mexican army in El Paso wanted to make the first move against each other, but with the push into New Mexico, General Atkins saw the need to be able to distract the Mexican army away from the smaller US force moving eastward. A detatchment of 9,000 Dragoons were moved south into Laredo, taking the city by early September. The dragoons were ordered to move south into Reynosa in order to lure the Mexican army to take back Laredo, then back up north to take El Paso.

The Mexicans took the bait, moving south to find Laredo abandoned by US forces. After El Paso was taken, Mexico was faced with the decision to either engage the US Army in the north, move to stop the US army from pushing into Arizona and Utah and leave their homeland defenseless, or do nothing. They chose to do nothing and wait for an American invasion of Mexico.

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The stalemate between San Antonio and Laredo.

The invasion never came, however. Andrew Jackson knew that the more territory they held in the north, the more unstable the Mexican Empire would be, and the bigger the chance of a peace deal without having sacrificed any American soldiers. By the end of June of 1837, the Second US Army had already taken all of New Mexico and Utah, and parts of Arizona, and the US and Mexican forces continued to stare each other down across the Nueces River.

On July 5th, 1837, the Second US Army moved south into the remainder of Mexican-held Arizona. The fall of Arizona would leave California vulnerable, and if California were to fall, then Mexico itself would be in danger. Rather than wait for the inevitable invasion of Mexico, and not willing to face the US Army in San Antonio, Mexican president José Justo Corro sent the United States a Peace offer, recognizing Texas as an independent republic, and the Mexican-American war was over.

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American-occupied territory on July 7th, 1837.

When the war ended, Mexico was humiliated and Andrew Jackson was again regarded as a hero. Not a single US soldier died in battle, and Mexico had become widely regarded as a nation of cowards when they never faced a US force on the battlefield. Due to the fact that there was no battle, however, the US never got a chance to prove itself militarily, and the world still regarded the democracy as a lesser power.

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In the United States, however, Americans were celebrating their victory. An idea called Manifest Destiny began to spring up and gain support. The idea called for American dominance over at the least the northern Mexican holdings of California, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. In it's most extreme form, it called for dominance over the entire Mexican Empire, and the rest of North America.​
 
What cowards! If only you didn't have that status quo as a war goal, you could have taken most of their modern day US holdings into your empire without a loss of life, oh well.
 
Nope! I just had a rough two weeks with the loss of my brother. I flew out to the memorial and funeral and such, and just got home yesterday. I'm going to have an update this week for you guys. Apologies for the wait!
 
Nope! I just had a rough two weeks with the loss of my brother. I flew out to the memorial and funeral and such, and just got home yesterday. I'm going to have an update this week for you guys. Apologies for the wait!

Aw :( Well that's certainly understandable. Looking forward to that update, and sorry for your loss.
 
Thank you guys for the words. I have a slight bit of bad news: I'm unable to load my save games now. My computer shut off during a game, and now I crash every time I try to load it. I don't have any autosaves for the game either, unfortunately. It is fortunate, however, that it was only 1840 and I can easily replay the first four years and just repeat my steps. So don't expect the story to change!
 
Empire of Liberty





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The South American Intervention





With the defeat of Mexico and the rise of Manifest Destiny in the United States came a more interventionist view of the world, and especially the western hemisphere. The United States became more and more aware of the major wars that were building up in South America.

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The borders of South America before the war began.

The first of these wars began in December of 1836, when the chaos in the Peru-Bolivian Confederation reached a boiling point. Peru wanted it's freedom, and Bolivia refused. As a result, a civil war erupted within the confederation. Two months later, in early February of 1837 Chile and Paraguay declared war on Bolivia in support of a free Peru. The war up to this point had gone in favor of Bolivia, but after the involvement of Chile and Paraguay, the war had come to a stalemate.

The stalemate between the two sides would last throughout the Mexican-American War, until early August, 1837. On the 3rd of August, Brazil joined the war on the side of Peru, Chile and Paraguay, and Bolivia found itself surrounded. The Bolivians reached out desperately for help from Rio Grande Do Sul against Brazil, and their pleas were heard. The small country believed that Brazil would be too occupied against Bolivia to deal with their southern borders. They were wrong, and Brazil intercepted messages between the two countries and quickly declared war, moving south into Rio Grande before dealing with Bolivia. The nation was annexed by early 1838.

The war with Bolivia, however, didn't go as well. The Bolivians, even while losing ground at an alarming rate, refused to surrender until a year later. On January 14th, 1839, Bolivia was forced to cede a great amount of territory to Peru, Brazil, and Paraguay.

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The result of the South American War.

While the war against Bolivia was being waged in the south, an entirely separate war was being waged just north. In November of 1837, Venezuela, the United States of Central America, and Haiti declared war on Colombia. The USCA demanded the territory of Panama, while Venezuela, with Haiti's support, planned to annex the rest of the Colombian territory to reform Gran Colombia, under Venezuelan leadership.

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Venezuela began losing territory quickly to the three aggressors, and sent a plea to the United States for aid. President Jackson saw this both as an overly aggressive move against what was perceived as a neighbor of America, and an opportunity to expand without incurring the wrath of the great powers of Europe.

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Before war could be declared to help Colombia, however, Andrew Jackson had to deal with issues within the United States herself. On March 3rd, 1838, Texas applied for statehood, and Jackson knew how much the territory would be worth in the coming war against the South American countries. On March 7th, Texas became the 28th state in the Union.

Not every American was happy, however, as Jackson brought the new State into the Union as a free territory, rather than a slave territory. This outraged the pro-slavery population in the South, making an already bad situation within the United States even worse. To address the issue - albeit temporarily - the Jackson administration pushed through a House Gag Rule.

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With the Gag Rule in place and Texas securely in American hands, Jackson decided that it was time to intervene in the war in the south. On December 27th, 1838, the United States declared war on Haiti, and the United States of Central America decided upon supporting their ally. On January 13th, a small army of 6,000 US troops landed in Cap Haitian, followed by another 6,000 landing two weeks later in La Vega. The invasion took the Haitians by surprise, as most of their troops were in Colombia. However, 9,000 Haitian troops remained on the island to resist the invasion. By the time they had moved north into Cap Haitian to face the Americans, however, they were faced with an enemy who was already dug in.

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The Battle of Cap Haitian.

The Battle of Cap Haitian lasted nearly a month, and ended with 2,624 Haitian casualties and 1,782 American casualties, and a broken and demoralized Haitian army. The US army in Cap Haitian remained did not pursue the enemy army, but the troops in La Vega moved west into the Haitian capital, arriving before the Haitians and once again catching them off guard. After two weeks of fighting, the Haitians again retreated, this time east into La Vega. This time, the US Army did pursue them, and after two more skirmishes - one in La Vega and one in Santo Domingo - the Haitian army was wiped out.

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On July 18th, 1839, the United States officially annexed the island of Haiti in order to ensure continued stability in the Caribbean, and then began plans of invading the USCA. The Central American nation, however, had long been plagued with political and social unrest. In early August, the USCA finally collapsed upon itself and split into the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. A few days later, the was was over, and on August 22, 1839, Hispaniola became the 29th US State, and was admitted as a free state.

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The United States decided not to extend the war into Venezuela. Instead, Jackson had decided to concentrate on the ongoing slavery debate, which was increasingly dividing the country as extremist southerners began to whisper of secession.​
 
I was able to locate an older save of the game, after the Mexican-American war, so nothing has changed in the game from the Mexican-American War chapter.
 
I find it mildly ironic that the almost entirely black island of Hispaniola was admitted as a free state while Texas was admitted as free.

Ah, well, wouldn't want a repeat of what happened to the French, would we?