RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!
I got a mental image of a San Francisco version of that Polandball comic where Sweden assimilates all the other countries.
La República de Oro: A History of the Californian Republic
- Thread starter Zrew33
- Start date
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!
I got a mental image of a San Francisco version of that Polandball comic where Sweden assimilates all the other countries.
We're already in process of assimilating the Bay Area, aka the Greater San Francisco Co-Prosperity Sphere!
(btw, does anyone mind if I create an official SF Thread in Chat?)
Emperor RyRy
Banned
What do you mean?
There's a chat forum?!
Holy shit I've been here for years and only ever went to the three alternate history parts.
Emperor RyRy
Banned
Anyway.
I think I'll make a California TL too.
Except the PoD is Spain colonized a decade earlier and Russia undies 40 years earlier and expands into Siberia earlier too. So Russia meets La Misión de San Francisco de Asís in 1690 and the Spanish King freaks the fuck out. He send a ton of settlers to start farming, and the native population has mostly recovered from the diseases and now there are like 700,000 native Californians (which speak 500 different languages) and like 500,000 whites in 1750 and Russia now has colonies in Oregon and stuff.
Bro, I think it would be awsome if you made a TL, but don't spoil anything! Just say it's a California TL.
Emperor RyRy
Banned
Bro, I think it would be awsome if you made a TL, but don't spoil anything! Just say it's a California TL.
The TL would START in 1750
Just discovered this. I am intrigued, and subscribing That's if you'll accept views from a scruffy, ne'er-do-well ASB writer
That's if you'll accept views from a scruffy, ne'er-do-well ASB writer
Emperor RyRy
Banned
You sly son of a gun.
It's basically a subtle California wank with both Russia and Spain (mostly España) fortifying and settling those lands.
3rd Presidency of the Republic of California
Andrew M. Clarke: 1850 – 1854
“Will there ever be a year when men, women and children from around the world stop flocking to this country. Will there ever be a day when the glimmer of hope doesn’t shine into a child’s eye as they gaze upon the lighthouse on Alcatraz Island as their ship sails into San Francisco Bay.”- Oliver Maynard, Senator of Bahia, 1850.
In some aspects California changed very little in terms of direction throughout Clarke’s presidency. A new wave of European immigrants graced the new world following the 1848-49 revolutions [1]. Many had already attempted to settle in the United States however it was the first few months of Clarke’s presidency California saw another burst in the amount of people moving into the nation. Much like his predecessor Clarke enjoyed the idea that people were flocking to California, more people to fuel the nation’s growing economy however this wave did lead to a few problems. Although minor in comparison to the unrest the Europe, the costal settlements found themselves host to the continuation of arguments amongst those who had left the old world. Monarchists of those toppled nation such as Belgium argued with failed republicans such as those from France [2]. Clarke sent in members of the Californian Armed forces into the cities of San Francisco and Los Angles. In addition not wanting any more continuation made sure that the immigrants would be pushed towards separate regions of the nation. Thankfully for Clarke the amount of people was at least manageable giving out land charters to the various groups. Nether the less California grew more by each year. More towns continued to spring up along the railway and rivers across the nation. More ventured into the territories in search of riches and some continued to hope for more gold to be discovered in the Sierra Nevada foothills not matter how much they were told it had been picked clean. Clarke’s Government also helped to spread out the growth of the port settlements such as San Francisco by encouraging the population to spread out around the bay rather than concentrating on the tip. This had been debated by historians as being a quicker way to help stop the spread of disease that had been starting creep into the larger settlements as there wasn’t a clear system of sewage disposal until several years later.
The growth of railways continued, with both new lines and improvements on the old lines by private companies who in tern where fuelled by the increased in profitability of the railways. Soon San Diego was connected to Monterey and so were many of the central valley settlements. However with the onset of the periodic flooding of the valley pushed Californian engineers to find a possible solution. They eventually took inspiration from the Dutch Dykes and built the railways upon huge mountains of earth, with sporadic “tunnels” to allow the river into irrigation ditches for the farm. This wouldn’t be the only engineering feat that California would have to achieve. Carthage, the largest settlement in the Southern Colorado territory soon demanded to be connected to the coastal settlements. The Clarke Government tried to put that idea on hold as long as they could, with them not seeing the profitability of the expense to Carthage. This was until January 1853 when coal was found in the San Juan Hills close to the border with the US. This started what was coined the Coal Rush [3], or the Second Californian Rush. However this was nowhere near the scale of the Gold Rush, with it mostly being a Rush between Californian Companies to take as much coal-land as they could along with increased internal migration within California than immigration from other nations. It wasn’t until towards the end of Clarke’s Presidency in 1854 when the Carthage – Los Angles Railway was started.
Internationally the world had been involved in several major events the first being the Spanish attempting to open up Japan. Spain had tried to capture what the British had done with China by taking Hong Kong; however they did so with the Edo Bay in Japan in 1853 [4]. They did this in hopes of rekindling their weakening nation whose years of in fighting and started to show in falling power. On March 10th 1854 several months after continual harassment by Spanish Ships the Japanese Shogunate allowed it to gain the port of Shimoda and personal trade with the Japanese after the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa. However in the long run it didn’t help much as it also allowed the powers of Britain and France to gain a foothold in Japan, financing both sides of the Japanese Civil War a decade later. Although for a brief time Spain did enjoyed a monopoly of Japanese goods. California attempted to stretch its wings and sent Captain Adam Seymour aboard the CNS Sonoma. However he was confronted by several Spanish Ships and forced back. Though no shots were fired there was deemed a sense of Hostility between the nations and made it clear to California that they were far from a power in the Pacific. The size of the Californian fleet was not large enough to warrant a war especially over an island chain several thousand miles away from California.
The second event would be the situation occurring in the United States politics concerning the Slavery Debate. The previous president Clay had done quite well to calm the issues of slavery the following president Lewis Cass put forward his belief to let the state’s decide the issue of slavery. This in tern annoyed the north with Cass’s decision to be seemingly pandering to that of the south. It also switched the rumours of the south wanting to cede to that of members of the north wanting to do the same, although during Cass’s time as President of the USA nothing came about from this although it’s still an important note in the Slavery Crisis of the United States of America. The situation continued to worsen with the re-election of Lewis Cass, although this time with Franklin Pierce as vice-president. Following the death of Lewis Cass in 1853 [5] due to Tuberculosis leading to Franklin Pierce gaining the presidential reigns allowed for a further pro-south push within US politics again upsetting the North. To California and Clarke the situation came with both an upside and a downside. With them focusing on the debate and the country seemingly starting to fracture it would allow California to continue to grow without being threatened both militarily, however likely that may have been, and politically. However Clarke also saw that if anything would have happened during his presidency it would have put a large amount of stain on the Californian Trade possibilities with the US.
The Major test of Clarke’s Presidency came when William Walker [6] came to California in 1852. For the next year he travelled around California and gathered men to join him on this expedition into Mexico. Clarke had been informed of this egocentric man in San Diego and dismissed him as passing fad, something from which nothing would come about from but he was far from right. In 1854, William Walker and around 1000 other men, left San Diego and marched towards La Paz in the southern section of the Baja Peninsular capturing in October of that year. The Mexican Government retaliated by sending troops to stop Walker. However the “Victory of Walker” inspired many more men from California to join up leading to another 500 leaving and blocking the small retaliation force sent by Mexico along the Colorado River. Mexico in finding that the men came from California declared war of California. This situation caused a great deal of hassle for Clarke. He send around 3000 men to hold the River while he attempted to sort out peace between California and Mexico. What would be known as the Walker War would be a crucial point of interest for the Fourth Presidential election. The war itself would continue into the next presidency.
The Fourth presidential election was based mostly around the ongoing war with Mexico although it would turn completely against Andrew Clarke and the Federal Party with Charles Willis and the Nationalist Party using the dramatic loss at the Battle of the Colorado Mouth in which the Mexican army completely routed the Californian. This caused a great deal of the lack of public confidence in Clarke especially since it was later found out in the election that Andrew Clarke had been involved in discussions that created the lack of reinforcements and logistical support. Clarke had been hoping on Mexico would agree to a stalemate considering the situation that had created the war. The Mexican Government had other ideas, not wanting to be humiliated by country born out of its own land. Willis used’ Clarke’s failures to his advantage this gaining the first Nationalist Victory in the short history of California. Although not as pro-US as many of the Nationalist leaders had been he still had vowed to build California into throwing the shackles of British Domination away. The next four year would put his views into practice.
Authors Comments
[1] The Revolutions of 1848 happen however the full effect of the Revolutions is slightly different to OTL considering butterflies. However I decided to keep it in this timeline as I felt that the TL would not completely butterfly away the political movements in Europe.
[2] Yes, Republic of Belgium and Kingdom of France. Short Explanation - With the revolutions occurring first in Germany the Intellectuals of the German States chanting for Unity creating a stronger united North Germany Confederation. The French King fearing another revolution agrees to help sort out the unemployment which in tern lessened the impact of the Republicans. Who moved towards Belgium to help the Belgian Republicans.
[3] Coal Rush is would be more of a modern term
[4] As America doesn’t have access to the Pacific I thought it should be another nation’s time to open up Japan. With France/Britain dealing with Russia (an event I fill would need major butterflies to be change drastically) I thought Spain could be the one, especially considering its holdings in that region of the Pacific.
[5] As I’m not entirely comfortable in changing too much with the American Politics to do with the Slavery Debate I continued to allowed Pierce to gain Presidency to push forward the ACW section of this timeline.
[6] Occurred OTL however under different circumstances
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Map, Whoot!
Question: What exactly is this North German Confederation, is it a Prussian dominated manarchy or a republic?
Thank you!
Yeah well the name North German Confederation is really I guess a generic term form the collection of German States rather than a United Nation. But yes it is still a monarchy. It was more of a Pan-German movement than trying to over throw the Monarchy.
Thank you for reading and correcting me. I do have a slight problem sometimes seeing my own mistakes.
