Cinco de Mayo

[KingSweden24]

"...as the conventions drew closer, Hay had not one but three major diplomatic achievements to hand to Blaine; the completion of reciprocal treaties with Ecuador, Colombia and Mexico, all three Latin states and two of whom had both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines. A "mile marker for foreign trade," as Hay declared it at a speech in New York, the agreements - the Mexican one finalized despite an asymmetric civil war still raging in the country - would secure trade rights for the United States while giving it access to raw materials from all three that were not in high supply on their own soil. Crucially, the reciprocal treaty with Mexico kept silver tariffs in place on both, keeping indigenous mining interests in both happy, while lowering duties on other goods both raw and finished. It would take some years for the treaties to truly start feeling their affects, but Hay would always regard the trio of agreements as critical in the late 1880s economic boom, having built on the success of the Pan-American Conference, and remained one of his proudest accomplishments. Of course, the closer ties to Colombia would soon become critical only a year later, as the 1846 neutrality treaty with New Granada remained unclarified..."

- The Cornerstone: John Hay and the Foundation of American Global Prestige

 

[Darth_Kiryan]

Man the competence of the Blaine administration is amazing to read.. loving it.

Also, diplomatically surrounding the confederacy there with said treaties.

 

[KingSweden24]

Man the competence of the Blaine administration is amazing to read.. loving it.

Also, diplomatically surrounding the confederacy there with said treaties.

It helps hiring the best men of your time! I’m really enjoying fleshing out alt-Blaine and his Cabinet

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the first shot of the war was thus not even a shot but a diplomatic missive; the arrival of Yuan Shikai in Seoul to collect the tributary payment from King Gojong, with an army at his back, led to the immediate mobilization of the Foreign Legion's Korea Battalion in Busan. The French legation was evacuated on the night of March 11, traveling to Tokyo via Port Hamilton. The French also withdrew from the Tientsin negotiations, honoring their promise to suspend the informal ceasefire that had commenced with Bac Ninh if the Chinese collected their Korean tribute. The collapse of the negotiations finally forced Li's hand - the war party had their evidence that there was no dealing with the obstinate French. French and Japanese agents instigated riots in Seoul that were brutally put down in the 22nd by Chinese soldiers as Yuan attempted to march back to the safety of the Yalu; the incident was the inciting event France needed to declare its treaty obligations for its Korean "protectorate." Forces in Tonkin were mobilized upon learning that the Tientsin talks had collapsed, and China immediately dispatched to all missions in Peking "the understanding of war with France."

The Sino-French War had begun..."

- The Sino-French War

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Dutch activities in Aceh only escalated into 1884 and 1885, with the Sino-French War and increased German trade via Cambodia and Siam as her main concerns. Control of Aceh was strategic on the approach to the Malacca Straits and the Netherlands, with only the East Indies as its colonial domain, could not afford to let the critical sultanate fall into another powers' hands. The escalation of activities in Aceh involved more aggressive "clearing" of villages, massacres of natives, and even a food blockade by the Dutch Navy to prevent rebels from gaining access to supplies. The heavy-handed response drew condemnation from the Ottomans, who debated for the first time dispatching their substantial Navy through the Suez to defend a small Muslim power overseas..."

- The Scramble for Asia: Colonialism in the Far East in the 19th Century

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Fifty Days Crisis ended with Isabel's abdication, as the collapse of support for her reign in Parliament made her continued reign untenable. In abdicating, she established a regency, with herself as regent for her son, the new Emperor Pedro III. The move still left her with considerable clout, however, as her son was yet not even nine. Prime Minister Dias moved to quickly pass a new law of regency that established not one but three regents - Isabel, Prince Pedro Augusto, and the dowager Empress Teresa Cristina, grandmother to both Pedros and widow of the late Emperor. The Triple Regency would serve to make all royal decisions until Pedro III was of age - in effect, it was a conservative coup against Isabel, for Teresa Cristina was a partisan of her preferred grandson rather than Pedro III. Prince Gaston condemned the move and suggested to Isabel that they flee the country; she refused, stating, "My destiny is Brazilian, not European." The conservative parliament proceeded to enact Gaston's military pay hikes and reforms with little fuss, and Dom Pedro Augusto - now living in the Leopoldina Palace, an annex of the main Imperial residence - began to host politicians, businessmen and other figures of the day as if he were the regnant himself..."

- The Southern Star: Brazil in the Age of Pedro II

 

[Couperin]

Triple Regency

With this conservative coup in Brazil and Les Trois in France, I would say that you have a thing for reactionary triumvirates! Either way, the Sino-French tension over both Vietnam and Korea is really interesting. I wonder if the Japanese will seek to undercut both powers in Korea through Queen Min, which I think would be really interesting and present an interesting challenge to Nappy IV, especially since foreign policy was supposed to be his forte.

 

[KingSweden24]

With this conservative coup in Brazil and Les Trois in France, I would say that you have a thing for reactionary triumvirates! Either way, the Sino-French tension over both Vietnam and Korea is really interesting. I wonder if the Japanese will seek to undercut both powers in Korea through Queen Min, which I think would be really interesting and present an interesting challenge to Nappy IV, especially since foreign policy was supposed to be his forte.

Ha! Apparently that’s my bag

That’d be a particularly rich irony seeing as how OTL Queen Min was viewed in Tokyo as the biggest impediment to their expansionary designs on the Mainland

 

[KingSweden24]

"...despite the Beiyang Fleet being his personal domain, Li was able to do the impossible and persuade the fleet commanders of the Nanyang and Guangdong Fleets to carry out a preemptive surprise attack on the Far East Squadron. With the combined force of the two southern fleets, the plan was to rapidly knock out France's most impressive naval capabilities [1] and eliminate the notoriously aggressive Courbet's force projection capabilities further east. Li's eye was particularly on Korea, which he was to reinforce with his Beiyang Fleet -the best equipped in the Qing Navy - and to keep the Fujian Fleet in harbor while armies were raised and the scope of the war could be assessed. Despite French ships observing the Nanyang Fleet leave Shanghai, the Triomphante lost sight of the enemy in stormy weather near Formosa and it was not until the full weight of the Guangdong Fleet had passed a French scout near Hongkong that it became obvious that both fleets were live in the South China Sea. Courbet did not receive the message in time, and the spotter near Hainan was sunk clandestinely as the two fleets - the Nanyang under Admiral Li Chengmou, the Guangdong under Admiral Wu Quanmei - passed on the north side of the island rather than south of it as the French had anticipated.

Though skirmished between the French Foreign Legion in southern Korea and pro-Chinese forces would mark the first blood shed in the war, the Battle of Ha Long Bay in Tonkin marked the first true engagement, and was the premier naval battle of the war. Two Chinese fleets sailed into the vast bay, replete with inlets, on a particularly foggy morning on April 2nd, 1884, and engaged Courbet's fleet the day before they were due to disengage from Tonkin and engage in campaigns in Chinese waters. The Chinese had the element of surprise and the upper hand of aggressiveness, managing to sink the gunboats Lynx, Aspic and Lutin in the immediate crossfire before Courbet ordered his ships to disperse among the many islets of the bay. As the vessels hunted one another - now through fog created by gunpowder - the Chinese technological disadvantage revealed itself, especially ships in the smaller and less modern Guangdong fleet, picked off easily by the French, and Admiral Quanmei went down on his flagship Haijing, and soon thereafter the steel gunboat Zhenhai ran aground and was picked apart by Courbet's flagship, the Bayard.

Critically, France lost none of her ironclads or 1st-class cruisers, and though she would lose four gunboats, three torpedo boats, and the cruiser Volta. Nevertheless, a substantial number of vessels in the fleet took heavy damage and after the fighting raged deep into the night, the Chinese - having taken on substantially heavier losses both in ships lost as well as ships damaged, and many of their sailors picked off the decks by French rifle fire - were ordered to retreat by Admiral Li.

The Battle of Ha Long Bay thus was a tactical draw, with perhaps a slight edge to China; Courbet's fleet had suffered damage that would be difficult to repair at Hongkong, let alone at Cam Ranh, both approaches requiring leaving the relative safety of Ha Long to brave the open South China Sea. However, it was not the decisive blow China had sought, and French reinforcements were inbound already. Despite a plan to re-engage the French on open seas after the muddled draw, Admiral Li refused, and instead consolidated his fleet into one and sailed for Formosa to defend the straits north, dispatching men at Canton to tell the Court in Peking that the Fujian Fleet would have to make further offensives if ever they would leave Fuzhou. The Triomphante, on its own, harassed Li's fleet back to the mainland, even managing to sink a gunboat near Amoy [2].

So the strategic objective for China was lost - they did not sink Courbet's fleet to the bottom of Ha Long Bay and end the war in a single blow. Instead, as they would discover, the enraged Courbet was only beginning to gather his strength..."

- The Sino-French War

[1] If this sounds like the magical thinking behind Pearl Harbor, you're right, and also is similar to how OTL's Sino-French War got started - albeit in August of 1884 - when Courbet sailed into Fuzhou and sank the Fujian Fleet as a preemptive maneuver when hostilities broke out. Here, China makes the first move
[2] Archaic name for Xiamen

(All vessels and fleet personnel from OTL)

 

[Couperin]

What is Britain doing during this war? Are they too preoccupied to side with one side or the other?

 

[KingSweden24]

What is Britain doing during this war? Are they too preoccupied to side with one side or the other?

Bein’ all perfidious, you know how they can be!

In all seriousness at this point things haven’t quite escalated to where they would want to (or need) to intervene. That could potentially change, of course

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Custer found the ideal ally for his cause of expanding and reforming the Army in William Rosecrans, a fellow former officer from the war, now representing California in the House. [1] Both elected in 1880, they had only grown close during the 48th Congress, mostly by accident as they were reintroduced to one another at a reunion event of Union officers in late 1882. Their personalities and backgrounds were markedly different - Rosecrans was two decades Custer's senior, an engineer by trade and had participated in a number of business ventures, civil service positions and other pursuits after the war; his personality was quiet and pensive, but no less ambitious. Critically, he was the ranking Democrat on the House Military Affairs Committee and like Custer he held longstanding grudges against a large swath of their former kin from the Army; particularly, he was outraged by Speaker Garfield's diminishing his war exploits and by the time the conventions of 1884 drew closer was the public face of the "Perfidy with the Public Purse" campaign started by Democrats against the "big-spending" Liberal administration of Blaine. Rosecrans, though lacking Custer's media savvy, had a deep well of contacts with investors, particularly in the West, and much of the flow of funds to Democratic congressional candidates in 1884 would come from his efforts. Their common interests aligned, Custer finally had another advocate for Army reform at the ready, and despite both men starting to form Presidential ambitions, Rosecrans had a critical ally with universal name recognition in much of the Midwest who could help him further his own political goals..."

- The Wolverine in the White House: The Presidency of George Armstrong Custer at 100

[1] As in OTL. Rosecrans is somebody who I haven't seen many other TLs do much with and him and Custer, as Democrats who served in the Union Army (albeit different theaters of war), seem like they'd make an obvious match in terms of their interests aligning.

 

[KingSweden24]

"...for Msiri, the choice was straightforward. Continued Belgian penetrations into the interior of the Congo Basin to his north were partnered with stories of northern kings being subjugated; the Portuguese, on other hand, brought protection agreements, promised access to the sea via Loanda and, after 1885, the protectorate of Portuguese Congo at the port of Cabinda. Portugal reaped massive benefits from this too, earning a foothold into the Katanga Plateau, astride the headwaters of both the Congo and the Zambezi, and providing them with a protectorate that helped cement their missing link between Loanda and Lourenco Marques. When Portugal announced the protectorate to the world via diplomatic channels, it created a stir and began to nudge the European powers into contemplating a grand conference to determine the fate of the African continent - France's expansion across the northwest of the continent, little Belgium's continued rivalry with Paris in the Congo Basin, and now Portugal and Germany staking claims to large swaths of land alongside the complicated geopolitical situation in South Africa between Britain, the Free Republics and several independent kingdoms, meant that the issue would need to be negotiated before it grew thornier..."

- The African Game: The European Contest for the Dark Continent

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Gojong and Min were evacuated from Seoul to a mountain stronghold at Chuncheon in Gangwon as the French rapidly advanced up from Busan, defeating a token Korean force at Chonju that opened up the path to the capital. Yuan, for his part, kept the balance of his force at Seoul, building fortifications to the city's south and west to defend against forays up the Han as well as against the approaching French Army. Koreans were forcibly conscripted by the Chinese, generating considerable anger, and desertions in the royal army increased into the late spring.

The Chinese were not expecting the next French move, however. With violence in Pyongyang rising, and Christian paramilitaries forming to defend themselves against Confucian mobs, the French decided to carry out the operation they had planned earlier in the year when the Pyongyang Affair had first occurred. Numerically, the French squadron out of Busan was dramatically outgunned; they had nowhere close to the vessels at Courbet's disposal in the South China Sea, and word of the fighting at Ha Long had never reached them even by May. However, the operation was carried out regardless - with intelligence that the Beiyang Fleet had been split into components to better defend across the Yellow Sea, the French Korea Squadron moved as one, first attacking - and seizing - Ganghwa Island and destroying the token Chinese naval force guarding it, and leaving behind only a gunboat to defend in a major gamble along with a small detachment of men. In her second move, the French caught a large component of the Beiyang Fleet in the Taedong Estuary, where they were able to force the Chinese vessels into a position between them and the artillery at the village of Nampo, neutralizing the cannons from land and sinking of crippling most of the vessels as they struggled to move out from the mouth of the river. The surviving ships that slipped free immediately retreated towards Tientsin to regroup with the rest of the Beiyang Fleet, leaving France in control of the Korea Bay and the entrances to both the Taedong and Han rivers. The French squadron shelled Nampo from a safe distance, devastating its artillery position, before seizing the strategic headland with only a company of Marines.

The Battle of the Taedong was a resounding success, one of the most lopsided victories in the history of the French Navy. With Nampo and Ganghwa secured, the Korea Squadron sailed up into Pyongyang, linking up with the Christian paramilitaries there, and seized the city in bloody fighting. Despite still being outnumbered by the Chinese presence on the peninsula, the French now had a secure position among friendly locals hostile to China to the north of Yuan's fortifications in Seoul, and could choke off efforts to resupply him via the Han..."

- Queen Min

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Germany's shipbuilding industry at this point was only beginning to spread her wings, primarily in Hamburg and Kiel. Though mostly commercial in nature, by the mid-1880s there was a small and nascent naval shipbuilding industry that contracted out vessels to foreign powers. Perhaps in the most famous example was the Nanrui-Nanchen Affair, in which two steel cruisers built at Kiel for the Nanyang Fleet of China, were expected to be an early test of the engineering capabilities of Germany's naval designers. Of course, the vessels were force to circumvent Africa en route to Shanghai as France blocked any shipments meant to relieve China via the Suez, outraging European powers; the Nanrui and Nanchen, staffed entirely with Germans for the voyage to Asia, had to brave the open Indian Ocean after stopping for coal at Cape Town as there were fears of running into French vessels. The ships, after stopping in Singapore and then Cambodia, were effectively blocked from reaching China when France cabled the German resident in Kampot that any attempt to send the vessels further on to Canton would result in their seizure by France. With France's naval force considerably larger - particularly in the Far East, where they were conducting their war against China - the ships were forced to stay in harbor at Kampot until the French victory the following year. For Germany, it was an embarrassing episode, where their peaceful and neutral trade with another power was dictated to them by their French rivals. Along with the Samoan War a few years later, this overseas incident would serve as a major impetus for Germany's continued investment under Frederick in its indigenous shipbuilding industry and the creation of a colonial navy, as well as its further drift into Britain's camp when it came to skepticism of French imperialism in Africa and the Orient..."

- Frederick and Victoria: Consorts of Germany

(Lots of look-ahead mini-spoilers in this one!)

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the social mores and political context of Belle Epoque France permeated the country's famed artistic scene as well; the ethos of a young, modern Emperor who was more interested in science and history than in philosophy led to a broad understanding within the elite art patronage that it was realism, not the romanticist or impressionist worldview, that was more in line with the cultural oeuvre of the Second Empire; Napoleon himself was fascinated by photography and invested tens of thousands of francs of his personal assets into the furthering of the craft, viewing the medium as the essence of the "Francais scientifique" that he sought to usher in. The intellectual Emperor took a dim view of "superfluous" art, instead preferring more naturalistic view. In this he was influenced, ironically, by the famously political Gustave Courbet, who had ushered in Realism with his paintings of the unidealized peasants of France. For the social circle that dominated the salons of the Tuileries by the mid-1880s, this was not a rejection of monarchism but the essence in understanding the need for the National Contract. Where previous French elites had been lost in the idealized romanticism of a land that did not exist, in their view, the new regime of Scientific France, the modern conservative nation state that fused nationalist liberalism with monarchist ultramontanism and earned the loyalty of the previously-rebellious working class through paternalism and loyalty to the Church, was one that would see the world for what it was, and solve the issues of the day rather than ignore them. In this sense, the politicization of art - neither reactionary nor revolutionary but "an art of facts" - was a feature rather than a quirk of the times.

Such views extended to everything from architecture to music, sometimes both - the lavish design of the Palais Garnier for the Paris Opera was dated within a decade of it being built, with a preference emerging for more rigid structures that incorporated glass and showcased modern engineering. Culture was to be innovative and forward looking; the Prix de Rome in 1884 going to the innovative, iconoclastic composer Claude Debussy who rejected the traditionalist mores of the conservative Conservatory was seen as a particularly noteworthy rejection of the "Ancien Regime des artes," even though Debussy would later be associated with more impressionistic compositions. The culture of the Empire was defined very much by the spirit of its Emperor and the optimism, scientific innovation and transformative effects of the Second Industrial Revolution..."

- The Eaglet Takes Flight: The Reign of Napoleon IV 1874-1905

(Credit to @Couperin for his suggestions re: Debussy, which inspired this update)

 

[KingSweden24]

"...though persuaded by Hay not to sign any immigration policy that singled out a single country or region - explicitly East Asia in the failed acts of 1881 and 1882 - Blaine did finally relent to pressure from western Liberals and some nativist elements in New England by signing the Immigration Act of 1884, carefully constructed by Senator Aaron Cragin of New Hampshire, the Liberal President Pro Tem of the Senate. The act banned the immigration of "undesirable" people, without specifying by race or nationality. Undesirable, under the Act, was defined as "those being imported for terms of forced labor (clearly understood to mean Chinese coolies), prostitutes (enforced exclusively against Asian and Eastern European women), criminals, and the mentally insane." At Garfield's insistence, language barring those who were "destitute and likely to become a public charge" was stricken, out of fears that it would be too broadly enforced and limit the necessary laborers for burgeoning Midwestern industry. The Act also put in place a head tax of one dollar on every man [1], fifty cents on every woman and twenty-five cents per child under the age of sixteen who was brought to the United States, thus funding the new immigration bureaucracy that formed out of the Act, removing responsibility for immigration from the states and once again creating a modernizing reform towards an efficient public bureaucracy. It would be the last major achievement of Blaine's first term..."

- Titan: The Life and Presidency of James G. Blaine

[1] OTL Act was $0.50 per person regardless of age or gender. We've also packaged some components of the OTL 1875 Page Act into this act since there were no Chinese Exclusion Acts passed (yet) in TTL

 

[KingSweden24]

"...Britain's position east of India was always tenuous, and the Sino-French War underlined its needs to amplify her position lest she be outmaneuvered even further by France in Asia. Several cruisers were dispatched to Singapore by early summer as fighting in Tonkin and Korea raged; the Admiralty signaled to Prime Minister Harcourt substantial concerns about the viability of Hongkong after massive riots broke out in the city when neutral Britain allowed the French Far East Squadron to conduct repairs there. French successes at sea and Chinese inability to secure victory on land despite numerous tactical draws led to deep concerns at the Foreign Office about "China becoming the French India" and British diplomats furiously scurried around European capitals hoping to find a coalition that would force a negotiated peace in the Orient. Events accelerated, however, and in the late summer the French Navy sent its Suez Squadron to Cam Ranh, where Courbet's forces were nearly done licking their wounds from Ha Long Bay's epic battle. Their presence now nearly doubled in the South China Sea, the push to annihilate the remaining Qing Navy was at hand for the French Tonkin Corps, with orders from War Minister Boulanger in Paris to establish naval supremacy followed by a blockade..."

- The Scramble for Asia: Colonialism in the Far East in the 19th Century

 

[KingSweden24]

As I write these Sino-French War updates, I keep thinking back to the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies... keep hearing Jonathan Pryce's voice, with scenery stuck in his teeth, saying, "Hold the presses! It appears we have a... minor crisis brewing in the South China Sea..."

 

[KingSweden24]

"...the Liberal convention in Chicago was nothing less than a coronation for James Blaine, with the incumbent President renominated unanimously by the delegates, an unprecedented show of support and unity in the fractious party politics of the Gilded Age. The Democrats who gathered in St. Louis's Exposition Building could not have been more the opposite; out of power for four years, with the economy booming and the Liberals having passed nearly the entirety of their partisan agenda, the debate on what direction to take the party back into power grew acrimonious.

The frontrunners were those nudged out of the way by the barreling train of Samuel Cox four years before, a pair of familiar faces who had dominated the party's conservative flank for a decade. It was widely seen among Eastern delegates as being Bayard's turn, with the Delaware Senator commanding the loyalty of every state delegation from east of Ohio, with the expectation being that he would reward the New York delegation's decision not to draft a favorite son in Francis Kernan with giving the Vice Presidential nomination to a man from that state. The situation in the Midwest and West was more complex; George Pendleton, former Vice President and recently-deposed leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus for the sin of passing civil service reform (a cause that had already ensured an impending defeat for renomination before the now-Liberal Ohio legislature) saw the Presidency as a career capstone, one he promised to serve in for only one term if nominated. Pendleton was the opposite of Bayard in many respects. Though both had been Copperheads in the war, Pendleton had grown pragmatic with age, particularly in the Blaine years as he had sought rapprochement with the Liberal Party. He was not an ideological, doctrinaire conservative but rather an Old Jacksonian who sought new and innovative ways to appeal to the common man. For the aristocratic, Southern-tinged Delawarean, that was definitively not the approach he sought to take. The two remained at loggerheads, with the Western delegates - few in number despite the growing number of states - firmly in Pendleton's camp (though the California delegation pressed for native son William Rosecrans) due to his support of inflationary currency and Bayard's firm support for the gold standard, a position not even mentioned (strategically) by the Liberal platform. Compromise candidates were sought out - Rosecrans was proffered more than once, and some New York delegates of Irish background were intrigued, but it was seen as suicidal to run a Catholic, and an adult convert no less, atop a national ticket. Custer, who was not in attendance, had his name put into nomination by Ohio's Levi Lamborn, and some put up Ohio Senator George Hoadly as another potential candidate amenable to both factions. Even California's George Hearst was floated at one point, in no small part thanks to his vast personal fortune.

In the end, Rosecrans' opportunity to act as kingmaker evaporated when Bayard's supporters agreed to put Hoadly on the ticket as Bayard's running mate, pulling a swath of Midwestern delegates icy on Pendleton to the Bayard camp on the sixteenth ballot, cutting off Custer's momentum just hours before Rosecrans was prepared to throw his support behind the Michigan Senator. Hoadly, muddled on the currency issue, was seen as betraying his Ohio colleague Pendleton; Pendleton delegates from Illinois brawled with other Midwestern delegations as well as Bayard partisans from Maryland on the convention floor. New York's powerful Tammany machine was outraged as well - for a second straight election, the Democratic ticket would lack a New Yorker. Despite former President John Hoffman, in attendance at the convention and making a well-regarded address at it, attempting to cool the passions erupting on the floor of the Exhibition Building, it was to no avail - though Bayard was not in attendance, as the Bayard-Hoadly ticket was declared, angry opposition delegates stormed out, with many Pendleton supporters getting in drunken barfights with German immigrants later that night at various St. Louis beer gardens. It was the ugliest fracas at a Democratic convention since 1860..."

- The Shadow of the Hickory Tree: The Reinvention of the Postbellum Democratic Party