Where Hearts Were Entertaining June: An English Brazil

FleetMac

FleetMac

Ohshitohshitohshit! Looks like the Prince is trying to take the high road, which I'm not sure he'll be able to do for very long. Meanwhile, the woodcutters will need to act fast and consolidate themselves into a cohesive fighting force lest the militia and/or reinforcements start to make trouble. And of course, the Amazonians will need to either toe the line or be dealt with, given their split priorities.

Great update, I can't wait till the next one is ready to go! :D
 

Novelty

Another mid week update! You spoil us sarge, not that I'm complaining :D and it almost feels like real time too. I just hope the prince governor will not be executed or exiled at the end of this...
 
Al-numbers

Al-numbers

“While I will not take up arms against you, neither shall I take up arms for you.”

Oh boy. I hope this doesn't eventually turn out ala. Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. :(
 
Witch0Winter

Witch0Winter

Banned
Well, this has just been great. :( I had the next Heart of Dixie update completed, with half of it written today, as well as a new Where Hearts Were Entertaining June written as well...and my house's power went out for 2 hours. I lost both updates, including all of the WHWEJ and half of Heart of Dixie. Then, I decided to try again, to try again and get at least something out...and the internet went out about five minutes in, and has been down until about half an hour ago, and even included another short power outage that took out the couple paragraphs of WHWEJ I had written (I'm really bad at saving).

So, well...I don't know. I want to have something to post as I feel bad for being so sickly and non-responsive all summer, but it's just discouraging to be forced back like that. I hopefully will write a bit tomorrow and maybe have updates for both TLs up, but right now I just need to rest. I'm really sorry guys, I know you've heard excuses all summer, and it pains me that I've been so bad. I'm really and truly sorry. I hope you all will enjoy the updates when they come out, too. :(
 
Witch0Winter

Witch0Winter

Banned
Where Hearts Were Entertaining June
The Gray Council

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Maps
Europe -North America -New England- World​

The meeting of province leaders on June 19, 1765, was certainly a historic one for Brazil, but at the time nearly ended in disaster. Offers were sent to all seven provinces, but delegates only showed up from four of them: Andreas, Port Elizabeth, Victoria, and Sylvania. All four were in the south and wealthy off trade from other countries, which did little but further the opinion of the northerners that it was not a people’s rebellion, but rather rich traders who didn’t want to pay rightful taxes to the king.

The northern provinces of Virginia, Rio Grande, and Maceio outright refused to come, and labeled the others traitors, including Prince William, though the prince himself had been careful to do nothing to aid or abet the rebels. However, the province of Warwick, with the city of St. Louis a bastion of liberal trading culture, was blocked from sending delegates. The people of Warwick had themselves spoken up in support for the rebels, but their isolation had resulted in British troops cracking down on the province. Meanwhile, the Portuguese-dominant province of Sertão stayed silent on the matter.

Even once the meeting started, the so-called “Colonial Convention”, the situation did not get any better. The current situation was a rather clear divide between north and south. The problem went deeper, however, as the majority of the Brazilians were, overall, apathetic to whether Brazil declared independence from Britain or not. While the loyalists didn’t have to worry about apathetic people, as they would be fine with a return to the status quo, apathy was the greatest enemy to the rebels. If more people did not rise up to fight, the rebellion would eventually be crushed and all of them hanged.

Though this was a pending threat, it was difficult to get the delegates to agree to do anything about it. The delegates from Andreas tried to assume their “natural” position of authority for being the richest and most populous of the provinces, but only managed to make the delegates from Victoria storm out of the meeting house, which was little more than a cleared-out church in Raleigh. The delegates from Sylvania, meanwhile, were hesitant to join the fray, as their territory was little more than a handful of inland cities that relied on the trade of the seaside towns to prosper, but nonetheless weren’t nearly as gung ho about the war as any of the others.

With the debate over what exactly they were to do so split, it was hard to believe they would ever form a working council for the rebellion. Without a common cause between all of them, they would fail to draw anyone to their banner, and the rebellion would quickly collapse. Luckily for the future of Brazil, one man stood in the way of total destruction.

Henry Watkins was the closest thing the council had to a historical figure. He had served as a politician in Port Elizabeth since his 20s, and was easily the most recognizable face of Brazil to the outside world. Witty, humorous, and always happy to talk, he developed a reputation for being a truly likeable politician. He himself was, admittedly, poor in book learning, but he sponsored local artists and inventors in Port Elizabeth through funds from his estate, furthering his reputation in the community. His trips overseas to London and Paris had also made him known there, though he had a reputation for paying more attention to women than politics.

So, when Henry Watkins, on June 22, took to the pulpit at the head of the council, all delegates stopped and listened. Brazil, he said, needed a unified cause to rally behind, one that would shake the foundations of the British Empire. Rebellions do not succeed on small measures, he proclaimed, so neither should theirs. Before any of the other delegates gained a chance to speak, he announced what the Colonial Convention, henceforth known as the Colonial Council, would nominate as their cause: the abdication of King Robert II from the British throne. Toward this end, he said, the Colonial Council would nominate Prince William as their king, and proclaim him to be the rightful king of the British Empire.

Naturally, the announcement was met with mixed reactions. Most of the men on the council were under the impression that the rebellion was meant to break away with the British, not unite with them. Even those who wished to simply reform Brazil weren’t necessarily planning to try to force King Robert from his throne. However, Henry Watkins pointed out that Brazil needed a major cause, particularly one that would involve Prince William. With his backing, not only would most of Brazil fall behind him, but a non-insignificant amount of the British Empire as well.

It took the delegates some time, but they passed the resolution to adopt Watkins’ cause as their own. After doing so, they began drafting up a message to send to London as well as one to be sent to Prince William. It was a brilliantly simple dilemma: if he agreed to join, he would further their cause. If not, it would seem like he did not support a large portion of his people and may even lose support from the rest. Either way, one thing was certain: war was upon Brazil.
 
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FleetMac

FleetMac

Interesting gambit, the Colonists are playing; making a case of them being the land of "the True Heart of the British Empire" in order to get Prince William on their side. I'm hoping it pays off to act as a pan-national unifier (what with some folks being all about the Crown, others just wanting a bunch of tax-hiking stuffed shirts off their lawn), and at the least can get the Prince on their side. Also, am I the only one picking up on the irony of the Brazilian North (the more relatively "Luso" portion of the country, at least in part) being the ones labeling the pro-independence crowd as traitors to the King? Or are they mostly Anglo-led by this point, and mostly looking out for their wallets (as alluded to in the last update, slavery is still big up that way)?

EDIT: Great update, I look forward to more!
 
Witch0Winter

Witch0Winter

Banned
Hey guys, new thing I'm working on:

Hello, everyone. For a long time, I have wished to create my own world using my skills as a writer and as an amateur historian/cartographer, and now that dream has finally come to fruition. It will be a long road to creating this world, with many stories to tell, but I hope you'll all enjoy the ride.
Click to expand...

It's called Farther Than Pleiades and is my hand at alternate historical worldbuilding. And no, it isn't going to hurt my other TLs, as I'm going to be working on the project for a very long anyway. The first three chapters and prologue are posted here, so hopefully y'all can check them out while I assemble new updates and maps for both WHWEJ and Heart of Dixie.
 
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