For the Want of a King TL

Sorry for my absence.  Here's an extra long update to make up for it. 

Part 6: The Great American Revolution 1784-1798 Section 2: New Spain and South America:
Whilst the Tejas War was going on, open rebellion was blazing down in Mexico City. The people of the city, led by a Spanish army deserter by the name of Santiago Huerta. This self-named General led the angry rioters to storm the Viceroy’s Palace. The rioters broke down the doors and fought their way past the Viceroy’s guards. However, when they reached the Viceroy’s chambers he had, unsurprisingly, fled New Spain. Having reached the Viceroy’s chambers General Huerta declared himself Emperor of New Spain, as Emperor Louis-Auguste I of Louisiana had done. Things did not go as well for Huerta as they did for Louis-Auguste I. Two days after his seizing of power a second rebel group, the Ejército Popular de Nueva España (People’s Army of New Spain), stormed the, newly named, Emperor’s Palace and killed him. This group’s leaders, the priest Juan Holguín, the rich merchant Osvaldo Fernández and the defected army officer Ramiro Moralez, formed the Consejo Popular de la Nueva España (People’s Council of New Spain) to direct the defeat of the Spanish.

To this effect Moralez led an EPNE army to attack the port city of Veracruz. The Spanish holed themselves up inside the city and prepared for a siege, whilst waiting for reinforcements from Querétaro to lift the siege. What the Spanish didn’t know was that the EPNE army had met the reinforcements from Santiago de Querétaro on their march to Veracruz and defeated them. Thus Moralez simply camped outside Veracruz and waited for the city to fall. Meanwhile a second EPNE army attacked Santiago de Querétaro, storming the city after the inhabitants, who supported the rebels, opened the city’s gates to them. This began a period of five months, between July 1790 and November the same year in which the EPNE captured much of central New Spain. Veracruz fell in August, followed by Guadalajara a month later, the city of Heróica Puebla de Zaragoza also fell that same month. By November 1790 the EPNE was firmly in control of Central New Spain, their area of control spreading from Yucatan to the Rio Grande southern bank. But Las Californias remained out of their reach. Here a separate rebel group, inspired and backed by the Louisianans and led by Ramón Palacio y Saldaña, the El Imperio de Las Californias (or ILC) held sway. They had defeated the Spanish at Sonoma, Los Angeles and Monterey in July 1790 and had controlled Las Californias ever since.

The war between the EPNE and ILC began in December 1790, the EPNE’s General Moralez led an EPNE to attack the town of San Luis Río Colorado at the mouth of the Colorado River. The EPNE were in for a surprise, however, for, no sooner had they reached the town and met the ILC army, a Louisianan army appeared at their rear. This army, under General Thomas Alexandre Dumas himself, charged the EPNE’s rear guard and the forces of the EPNE were scattered and fled from the field of battle. The EPNE versus ILC section of the War of New Spanish Independence lasted 3 years, during which the ILC consolidated their control over Las Californias and, with Louisianan help, drove back the EPNE. This 3 year period of civil war is largely regarded as insignificant in the grander scale of things, and only relevant for the establishment of the El Imperio de Las Californias, or Empire of the Californias, as a separate entity to the Repúblicas Unidas de la Nueva España (the RUNE), or the United Republics of New Spain, that was proclaimed on the 30th January 1794.

From 1794 to 1796 the main theatre of the Great American Revolution was in the south of New Spain, as the RUNE fought their way down to the Panama Isthmus. The armies of the RUNE marched south through Yucatan and reached the city of Antigua Guatemala. The Mexican (as people from the RUNE were called, after their capital city) army besieged the city, with the Spanish forces holed up inside. The Spanish decided, rashly, to come out of the city to the Mexicans on the field of battle. This was a foolish move by the Spanish commander, his army were de-motivated and many actually supported the Mexican cause. Thus the Spanish were routed, with half of the Spanish army defecting midway through the battle. The Battle of Antigua Guatemala was a shambles for the Spanish. They had been overwhelmed and their soldiers had, for the first significant time, defected. The city of Antigua Guatemala fell and the Spanish gave up their hold on any territory further north of it. 

Having lost much of New Spain, the Spanish fought tooth and nail to retain the remainder of their American territories. They cracked down on any resistance in South America, brutally killing hundreds of, supposed, insurgents in Lima and further south. They also fought to the last man to try and prevent any further Mexican expansion. Despite their efforts in New Spain, however, the RUNE reached Panama in November 1796 and captured the city three months later. At this point General Moralez offered the Spanish a treaty, the Spanish would recognise the RUNE and ceded all land north of Panama to them. In return the Mexicans would provide no assistance to rebels in South America. The Spanish Governor of New Granada, Count José Manuel de Ezpeleta of Ezpeleta de Beire, agreed to the deal and the Treaty of Panama was signed on the 1st March 1797. From this point onwards the South American rebels were crushed. Uprisings in Santiago, Lima and Santafé de Bogotá were brutally put down and by 1798 an uneasy peace had settled across the Americas.

Part 7: The Great European War 1795-1807 Section 1: Rebellion in Spain and War in France:
The rebellions in the Spanish Americas would bring great pain to Spain and Europe as a whole. The constant fighting had caused taxes to rise dramatically the prices of goods rose as well. By 1795 the poorest were dying in the streets, hungry and penniless. This was the spark that lit the bomb. The people of Spain had long been angry with their king, would many viewed as little better than a French puppet, the loss of half their American empire, despite all that they had suffered to keep it, was the last straw for the Spanish populace and in March 1795, inspired the Mexican rebels, the Spanish Revolution began. In France, also, things were not well. The nobles were becoming increasingly angry with the King and many of the more radical members of the populace were stirring things up, in the hope of emulating the Louisianans.

The first uprising took place in Zaragoza. Crowds gathered in the Plaza de la Seo, day after day, and protested against the high bread prices and the high taxes they had to pay. When King Charles IV heard about this he reacted angrily, sending a small force of soldiers to “remove [him] of these troublesome people.” The commanding officer that was assigned to this force, Colonel Jorge Íñigo Moreno, was a violent and ill-tempered man and a thoroughly unsuitable choice for this command. So, unsurprisingly, once the soldiers arrived in the town things took a turn for the worst. As the crowd continued to protest outside the Catedral Del Salvador, the soldiers grew agitated and jumpy. At this point one protester threw a rock at the soldiers, who promptly open fired on the protestors. The protestors broke ranks, some daringly attacked the soldiers, and others fled the plaza. By the end of the day 51 protestors were dead, 78 injured whilst 3 soldiers were dead and 101 injured in some way. The people of Aragon were furious, they banded together and handed out any weapons they had and on the 24th May attacked the Palacio de la Aljafería (Aljafería Palace) where the King’s soldiers were staying. They were poorly armed but they had the superiority of numbers and after several hours of fighting the crowd had stormed the palace and killed all the soldiers it contained. They armed themselves with the dead soldiers’ guns and swords and then locked the city’s gates, prepared to hold back the King’s forces when they came. But the King’s men didn’t come, the French came instead. Charles IV had realised that he could not hope to defeat a rebellion in the Spanish homeland without help and so, once he heard of the Zaragoza Uprising, sent for help from his French allies.

The sight of French forces marching through the Spanish countryside dramatically worsened the situation in eastern. A second uprising broke out in Barcelona, a third in in Valencia and even in the capital of Madrid protests began against the King and the French. Chants of “El Rey es un títere francés” (The King is a French puppet) were heard across the land as the people of Spain turned on their king. At Zaragoza the French laid siege to the city. However, things took a turn in September 1790 when a massive army of rebels, numbering some 100,000 peasants and army deserters from across eastern Spain, armed with guns captured or taken from army defectors marched to lift the siege of Zaragoza. The French, who were in the middle of attacking the city, had no defence at their rear and the rebels charged, torching the French tents and huts, and smashed into the rear of the French force. The French scattered in terror of the fire-lit and vicious rebels, a French veteran later described them as “fiery devils who fought with such anger you could not help but flee.” The rebels inside the city burst out of the city’s gates and joined in the slaughter of the French.
At this point Joseph II saw his opportunity to further cement Austria’s position in Europe, even elevate it. After 26 years of peace Austria and her allies were more than ready to fight the French once more for supremacy in Europe and the rebellion in Spain presented a suitable opportunity. Joseph II called upon the Grand Alliance, all nations of the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian states, whilst France called its allies, Sardinia, Wittelsbach Belgium, Sicily and Saxony. These last two were new recruitments to the French sphere, Saxony seeking support to expand within the Holy Roman Empire, which Austria wouldn’t allow, and Sicily wooing Sardinia’s supporters in the hope of enforcing a partition of Italy between the two.

Austria and her allies began the fighting of the Great European War with the launch of a major offensive to invade Belgium and eastern France in January. The Grand Alliance-HRE army, commanded by Archduke Charles Leopold of Austria (OOC: post-POD son of Joseph II), marched on Belgium, defeating a Belgian and French army at Luxembourg, before splitting in two, one half marching on into Belgium, the other marching south to Lorraine. The Belgium Army, under Archduke Charles Leopold, liberated Liege that had been occupied by French and Belgian forces, before marching into the western half of Belgium. At this point an envoy was sent to the Dutch and Prussians to entreat them to come to the aid of the Anti-French Coalition, the Dutch and the Prussians agreed and so a Dutch army marched into Belgium to meet the Grand Alliance-HRE army. The two armies met near Brussels where they fought a Belgian-French army, led by General Adrien de Moncey, outside the city.

The Battle of Brussels was bloody and vicious and fought over a day and a half. Archduke Charles Leopold ordered his cavalry to charge the, less well trained, Belgian forces on the left wing of the Belgian-French army. The Belgians fought gallantly against the thunderous cavalry charge but their ranks were shattered and their battle lines brutalised. After a long and vicious fight they broke and fled the field. In the meantime the French forces had charged the Grand Alliance army and the battle had descended into ruthless hand-to-hand combat. This continued for many hours, even into the night. By morning most had taken refuge in either Brussels or surrounding farm yards and even nearby Waterloo. At noon that day the Dutch army arrived at the field and, seeing this, the Grand Alliance-HRE remnants came out of their ‘lodgings’ and flocked to the Dutch banner. The French and Belgians, who were largely holed up in Brussels by now, seeing the ever swelling numbers of the Dutch army, fled the town and scattered across the countryside. By 3 o’clock that day Archduke Charles Leopold and the Dutch Lieutenant-General Willem Frederik van Bylandt that ridden victorious into Brussels, but in reality the Battle of Brussels was a Pyrrhic victory for the Grand Coalition, so great were their loses.

Meanwhile the Army of Lorraine was faring better, they reached Nancy by February and besieged the city. The Siege of Nancy lasted until September 1796, when the city was stormed by the besieging army. This was as far as the army of Lorraine got. Having captured Nancy set a garrison in the town they marched towards Châlons-sur-Marne, but here they met a significant French Alliance force. The French army stood they ground and repulsed several Grand Coalition attacks, before charging the weakened right wing of the Grand Coalition army. The right wing broke and the main body of the Grand Coalition army retreated back to Nancy. This was the end of the war in France, for now…