OOC: This isn't too detailed, especially when compared to Dachspmg's althist. Ah well, it was even largely intended so.
I am not very sure about the War of 1812 portion, though, so any constructive criticism there (or anywhere, really; but there in particular) would be appreciated.
IC:
The Perfidious Albion: 1812-1830.
By the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Britain was already established as the foremost of European colonial powers. Even after the American Revolutionary War it had retained a considerable foothold in the New World, in Canada, Hudson's Bay, the Maritimes, the West Indies and the Guinea. Trade outposts lined large sections of the West African coastline; in South Africa, the Dutch Cape Colony was conquered and later annexed for good, becoming an important part of the British global empire, connecting as it was the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. In that Indian Ocean, Britain too ruled supreme; the confiscations of certain Dutch colonies merely strenghthened its already-impressive regional empire, centred on the Indian Subcontinent where the last serious resistance in the form of the Maratha Confederacy was decisively defeated during the Second Anglo-Maratha War. A convict colony was expanding in Australia, a whole new continent where British dominance was unchallenged. And already the British were beating the door into China and Japan, which had for so long denied its trade.
Although the war with Napoleon in Europe consumed both time and resource, his threat was never trully all that great; what little potential of challenging the British naval supremacy he might have had, even in alliance with Spain, was destroyed in the glorious Battle of Trafalgar. The Continental Blockade had damaged British commerce and economy, to be sure, as had the expense of the war; but it brought greater ruination to the French Empire, causing it to crumble as soon as its ruler died. Alas, most of Britain's European allies were not sufficiently appreciative of the great role played by the British in the Corsican's defeat; they even dared claim that it sat back, leaving the brunt of the fighting to them, who made peace with Napoleon at every turn! What's worse, they practically ignored British mediation at Versailles; they doomed the Belgian project, though it was imperative for the balancing and peacefulness in Europe, and they practically expelled the Saxon duke to Rhineland. As always, petty greed and pride ruled the minds of the Continent's mighty; and so, exasperated, the British government turned its eyes towards the Atlantic Ocean's other side.
In other words: in the aftermath of the Versailles Congress, Britain's government decided upon a major change in priorities and geopolitical strategy. Over the last decade, Britain's commercial ties with Europe decreased considerably, but increased in the New World, where Spanish trade restrictions were loosened by chaos, allowing the British to thrive. In the realm of diplomacy Britain also found itself mostly isolated in Europe, as the Versailles Congress had shown. Judging the Continent to be presently not worth entanglement, Britain instead chose to concentrate on the New World. Two other major developments shaped this decision: the first was the alliance with Portugal and Spain (the latter being particularily important, as Spain was traditionally an enemy of Britain and an ally of France, with which it now however obviously quarreled despite having the same dynasty and government form again) and the second was the war with the United States of America, which had started in June 1812.
That war's causes were manifold; the Americans were angry over the British impressments of their sailors, frustrated over trade restrictions caused by the British blockade of Europe and irritated by the British support of Amerind tribes fighting against the American westwards expansion. While the former two ceased to be issues soon enough as Napoleon's empire and blockade collapsed, by then it was too late, as the American War Hawks proclaimed a "second war for independence" and made plans to remove British influence from North America altogether, while the British became convinced that the Americans needed to be taught a lesson and also stopped in their westwards expansion. However, by mid-1813 neither side managed to gain any decisive victory: no major battles occured at sea, British naval supremacy remaining unchallenged and American commerce raiding and suchlike operations also as unstoppable as ultimately inconsequential; the initial American invasion of Canada was mostly repulsed; the British counterattack captured Detroit and allowed the British to link up with their Amerind allies, but the death of Major General Isaac Brock prevented them from exploiting this properly; in early 1813, the Americans actually managed to capture and burn York, the capital of Upper Canada - but they too failed to make many gains beyond that, the Canadian resistance only stiffened by the atrocities at York; the war on the Great Lakes was still not quite decided; and several minor British raids had occured on the American Atlantic seaboard. In other words, no headway could be made for now; but as the war in Europe ended, the British freed up lots of professional, battle-hardened troops for the American theatre. Apart from the aforementioned desire to teach the Americans a lesson, a major factor influencing the British decision to carry on the fighting - and the British decision about how exactly the fighting should be carried on - was an issue at the intersection of Spanish and American directions in British foreign policy, the Louisiana Issue. The British were never particularily thrilled about the Louisiana Purchase, and the Spanish refused to recognise it altogether; besides the principle of the thing, it presented a threat to the remaining Spanish possessions in North America. Thus the British decided to kill two birds with one stone - box in the Americans and shore up the Spaniards. Soon enough, plans were drawn up for an ambitious Louisiana campaign. For assorted reasons it would only begin in March 1814. Contrary to British exceptations, the Americans seemed to have gotten their act togehter by that time, as their troops and commanders grew more experienced, while new ships have been built for lacustrine combat. In a key development the Americans in late 1813 managed to seize control over Lake Erie and forced the British out of Detroit and out of Ohio in general. British reinforcements expelled the Americans from the Niagara Peninsula in late 1813 and again in early 1814, launching a counterattack to secure the strategic Niagara Frontier town of Buffalo, New York, but failed to advance anywhere beyond that or to retake Lake Erie, effectively causing the restoration of the stalemate on the main front, only on terms that were considerably more favourable to the Americans and allowed them to launch several efficient campaigns to crush the great native British ally Tecumseh and to severely batter the "Red Stick" Creeks, though the British and their allies retained control over the northwestern parts of Michigan Territory and naval supremacy on Lake Huron. On the Atlantic seaboard, British forces did launch some raids into Maryland and Virginia, but ofcourse no decisive action has been taken there, as most of the British reinforcements were being prepared for the Louisiana Campaign.
Which kicked off very well indeed, as a large (for this continent) Anglo-Spanish force took New Orleans and surrounding positinos by surprise, and the Duke of Wellington himself (who was sent here by the British government that really, really wanted a very resounding victory) accepted the city's surrender after a brief siege. The force quickly struck out to secure key forts along the Mississippi River, receiving more Spanish reinforcements and native allies along the way. As news arrived of the crippling defeat of the Red Sticks in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend at the hands of a large American force, Wellington detached a British contingent to try and rally the Red Sticks and to capture Fort Jackson, key to the American operations in the Mississippi Territory. The attack was repulsed by the brilliant American commander Andrew Jackson, who proceeded to land another defeat on the Red Sticks, forcing them to surrender and the British force to fall back westwards. At the same time, however, a Spanish force recaptured the Mobile District of Florida (occupied by the Americans since 1813), securing a new base for British reinforcements. The American attempt to re-invade Louisiana was then thwarted by those reinforcements and other troops, as well as resistand Amerinds, near Natchez. While the war in the southwest devolved into skirmishing, the British proceeded to establish control over the key Mississippi cities and forts by the coming of winter, though they took more casualties than expected because of the supply problems and the spirited American defense, particularily in the Battle of St. Louis, where they were challenged by Major Zachary Taylor. Still, in the end professionalism, superior numbers and assistance of Amerind tribes allowed Wellington to prevail. From then on, in early 1815, the British forces advanced eastwards, first securing the not-so-bitterly contested and sparsely settled Illinois Territory (and linking up with William McKay's and Robert McDouall's forces in the western Great Lake theatre), and then moving into Indiana. Having left many troops to garrison the various forts, the British offensive was now beginning to run out of steam; but as the British overran eastern Maine and launched new raids in the American South, James Madison decided that he had no choice but to begin peace negotiations in Stockholm, in spite of the protests of the more hopeful war-hawks. The British themselves were not too certain of their positions neither, and so did not press their advantage too much during the negotiations. The ultimate peace agreement had Louisiana and Mobile restored to Spain, while Britain's claims on a northern slice of Maine were recognised; also, the British retained control over the Mackinac Island and the northern half of Illinois Territory. No other territorial concessions were demanded, however, the trade restrictions were obviously lifted now, the impressed sailors were returned and support for the Amerinds that remained within the more clearly-defined American boundaries was officially abandoned. The territorial losses still did embitter the American side, but in the end the fear of continued war against an empire that was perceived to be ready and willing to concentrate its resources on the war with the USA prevailed (also there was concern about growing separatism in New England). The Treaty of Stockholm was signed, and the Americans hurried to finish off the resisting Amerind tribes, even as a political crisis rocked Washington.
Another important development that shaped British policies in the New World itself was the crisis of the Spanish colonial empire, which by 1813 was aflame with major rebellions like none seen before. In spite of considerable British sympathy for the rebels, especially the Venezuelan leader Simon Bolivar, practical considerations and Spanish diplomats all spoke in favour of assisting Spain in restoring control over the colonies - in exchange for certain concessions to the British, most importantly economic ones to recognise the growth of the British economic influence in the Spanish colonies during the Great French War. Grudgingly the Spanish agreed to lower customs considerably and to grant the British some additional trade priveleges; in exchange, the British promised to support and fund the pacification of the colonies. In New Spain, the rebels were having a hard time fighting the Viceroy alone; with the arrival of Spanish reinforcements from Europe, order was easily restored; the guerrila campaign continued, but the rebel excesses and bad fortune strangled its popular support by 1816, and the remaining rebels were crushed before the decade's end. The aforementioned Simon Bolivar was faring somewhat better in New Granada, but between Spanish reinforcements, conservative opposition in the Second Venezuelan Republic's government and Jose Tomas Boves' llanero (Venezuelan cowboy) counter-insurgency, he was squashed like a bug and barely managed to flee to Haiti. Peru remained loyal through and through, Viceroy Jose Fernando de Abascal y Sousa becomng one of the leaders of the Spanish counter-revolutionary campaign after his victory over the Chilean rebels in 1814. That left the rebels in the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata the last major rebel group, though they were also by far the strongest and the best-organised. Under the leadership of the greatest rebel general, Jose de San Martin, the Argentinean Army of the North not only stopped the Peruvian advance into the Viceroyalty, but also begun supporting the rebels in Chile, whilst another Argentinean army fought off a Spanish seaborne invasion. In 1816, Jose de San Martin even led his army into Chile, reinforcing the local rebels under Bernardo O'Higgins and forcing the loyalist forces out of the Captaincy-General. The situation was getting out of hand, and after negotiating for some more economical and political concessions in Rio de la Plata, the British launched a new seaborne invasion, while the Spanish reinforced de Abascal and attacked Chile. In spite of the vigorous resistance the British invasion ultimately succeeded in capturing Montevideo and besieging Buenos Aires, forcing its surrender later in 1817 after some fierce skirmishes. Jose de San Martin took supreme command over all Argentinean forces and formed a new government in Tucuman, but the forces arrayed against him were too great, and after a decisive defeat at Cordoba in 1819 the organised resistance collapsed, while San Martin was handed over to Spanish authorities and hanged. Rio de la Plata officially remained a Spanish colony and vice-royalty, though from now on a British representative was to be consulted on assorted policies and a British military protectorate was effectively put into place as the Spanish were busy enough restoring order in Chile. Thus by the end of the 1810s most of the revolts were defeated; Paraguay, under the dictator Jose Gaspar Rodriguez de Francia, remained out of hostile reach due to good defensive terrain, though at the price of entering a state of effectively total isolation from the outside world.
Meanwhile Joao VI was restored to the Portuguese throne, but remained in Brazil, even reforming his realm into the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves. The colony was thus more or less contented, at least politically; in the metropoly, however, liberal dissent grew. Eventually a major Portuguese uprising commenced in 1821; with British help, a compromise was worked out, the king returning to Portugal and accepting a liberal constitution, while still granting Brazil some degree of autonomy.
The 1820s were generally a quieter decade for the New World, in part because Britain's attention has now largely shifted towards Africa and Asia. Over the course of the 1810s and the 1820s, the British colonial and commercial presence in both regions had expanded considerably. Control over the Cape Colony was consolidated and a Afrikaaner revolt was defeated; the colony itself was expanded northwards. New outposts and colonies were established in West Africa; the Ashanti attacked British colonies on the Gold Coast, but were repulsed. Muhammad 'Ali, the increasingly-independent Ottoman Wali (governor) of Egypt, cooperated with the British extensively, inviting British specialists for his industrialisation project while concentrating most of his province's agricultural production on supplying the British manufactories with cotton. The British also provided him with military advisors for his new professional army that was engaged in the conquest of Sudan in addition to assorted Ottoman campaigns against Wahhabi raiders, Greek rebels and the Russian Empire (see below). Also, in East Africa in the 1820s, the British provided assistance to their ally, Sayyid Sa'id ibn Sultan of Oman in his struggle against the Mombasa-based Mazrui family. The Sultanate of Oman had succeeded in restoring its authority in East Africa, and as a firm British ally helped secure the British hegemony over the Indian Ocean. [1]
In India, British hegemony was secured over those two decades. A crackdown on Pindari robber bands in 1817 led to a conflict with the decrepit Maratha Confederacy, which was decisively defeated at Khadki and proceeded to fall apart completely, the individual Maratha kingdoms becoming semi-autonomous princely states in the mold of Hyderabad, and the Peshwa was allowed to retire with a pension. From 1818 on, the British asserted their conrtol over most of India, putting down rebellions, introducing administrative and social reforms, beginning a well-meaning but poorly-received Westernisation and establishing a protectorate over Nepal. Also, a war with Burma was waged.
Indeed, the British were also expanding into Indochina. A treaty with the Dutch secured the former Dutch holdings in the Malay Peninsula for Britain in exchange for the concession of remaining British holdings in Sumatra, and a war with Burma allowed the British to expand in both the Malay lands and in Assam.
In China itself, the official situation remained unchanged, the legal British merchants still having to work within the restrictive Canton System. However, the illegal trade all over the Chinese coast increased dramatically over those two decades; in particular, the ever-profitable opium smuggling continued to expand in spite of all the sternly-worded Qing decrees. By contrast, in Japan the British have decided upon a more direct and drastic course of action. Emboldened by the 1808 Phaeton Incident (when a British ship sailed into the Nagasaki harbour, stared down the rather pathetic resistance force scrapped up by a local clan and was then granted the supplies its captain demanded, withdrawing only upon learning that the Dutch merchant ships it was supposed to intercept were not going to come this year), British merchant ships now besieged the Japanese coasts, often engaging in illegal trade. After the infuriated Shogun attempted to crack down on this trade, he attracted additional British attention, and it was decided to send an armed expedition to open Japan up for foreign trade in 1824. The expedition repeated the previous one's action, entering the Nagasaki harbour and presenting demands. This time the Japanese were somewhat more prepared; a large force of samurai gathered in the harbour, and a fleet of 40 small Japanese ships confronted the British expedition in the coastal waters. That fleet was almost completely destroyed by a powerful cannon barrage after attempting to attack the British, and the samurai formation was broken by a bombardment slightly later. Shocked by this military disaster, the Nagasaki Magistrate had no choice but to repeat history and to agree to allow the British to stay in Nagasaki for the duration of negotiations that the expedition's commander, Charles Elliot, had demanded. The Shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, was understandably outraged and ordered a new attack to dislodge the British from Nagasaki; it failed with large casualties, though the British too had lost many of their crew. Finally, the Emperor Ninko (who, like his father the Emperor Kokaku, was both interested in regaining real power and comparatively pragmatic in the regards of the outsiders) and the Bakufu council persuaded the Shogun to begin negotiations. In the end the British agreed to withdraw from Nagasaki in exchange for a trade agreement that opened Nagasaki, Fukuoka and Nagashima to British commerce, and allowed the British to establish small concessions there (though the Japanese straight out refused to allow any kind of missionary activities). With this precedent set, a trade and fishing rights agreement was reached with Russia; the Russians recognised Karafuto (Sakhalin) and Ezo (Hokkaido) to be under Japanese authority, and were allowed to trade in Hakodate. Obviously, these concessions couldn't but cause a severe backlash amongst the hardline circles; but in the end, a coup attempt within the Tokugawa household failed, while the Bakufu council remained in pragmatic and reformist hands. This would later prove to be a mere beginning of the Shogunate's troubles, though. [2]
Also in this time, the British formally claimed the entirety of Australia, though this didn't really speed up the colonisation process much.
But back to the New World. As already said, the 1820s were a quieter decade, but not by too much. The United States of America were still in a state of general political upheaval. The fallout from the war was great; the Federalists were ruined by decline of popular support, their own opposition to the war and sometimes all-too-true accusations of treason that "cost us Louisiana"; and the Democratic-Republicans were ruined by internal strife and disagreements, but also significantly by their prosecution of the war (both because they fought at all and because they lost so badly). Calls for reform and revanche went largely unnoticed amidst partisan strife, and popular dissent grew, leading to several populist riots and insurgencies, put down by the loyal state militias. Still, the Democratic-Republicans survived long enough for James Monroe to win the 1816 elections. His tenure (1817-1825) saw a temporary stabilisation of the situation; however, both the power struggles in the Congress and the reluctance of Monroe to force through any reforms prevented him from achieving much. Still, the War Department did receive additional funds to build new fortifications and ships, as well as to finish off the Indian resistance. Monroe was a fairly good compromise candidate, so he survived for his two terms; but by 1824 the American political landscape had finished its radical realignment - the Federalist Party was dead, and the Democratic-Republican Party was split. Andrew Jackson's [3] Nationalists (national-liberal) defeated Henry Clay's Republicans (reformist and interventionist). Vigorously, Andrew Jackson begun working to secure national unity and to prepare for a revanche against Britain and Spain. A small standing army was formed to help the militias campaign against the assorted rebellious Amerinds, most of whom were "pacified" (i.e. forced into reservations) by 1828. Obviously - though quite independently of Andrew Jackson's policies themselves - there was an increasing amount of clashes between the Americans and the Anglo-Spanish border patrols in Florida and Louisiana, in the process of this pacification. The Americans alleged that the British continued to support the Amerinds in violation of the terms of the Treaty of Stockholm; meanwhile, the Spanish alleged that the Americans were supporting separatist movements in New Spain and Cuba, and turned down all purchase proposals. After Jackson's reelection in 1828 - in spite of the best efforts of the pro-Republican Second Bank (which Jackson was trying to crack down upon as well) - the border conflicts with Spain and Britain intensified further, with American incursions in British Illinois and the recapture of Mobile from the Spanish by a filibuster American attack (the attackers proceeded to declare a "Republic of West Florida", but none doubted the American involvement there). The British singled out and hunted after American slave traders, and aggressively enforced their control over the Great Lakes. The situation was heading towards war.
Spanish colonies were still plagued by insurgency. Particularily annoying was a rebellion of American settlers in Louisiana, and yet another uprising in New Mexico. In the end, with British help the Spanish had held out, but found the British establishing larger garrisons in Louisiana and generally extending their political influence there, effectively turning Louisiana into another Spanish colony under British "protection". After the Mobile Incident, the British also begun increasing their presence in Florida. Aside frm that, they concentrated on consolidating Rio de la Plata, however, as a gradual trickle of colonists begun to arrive there.
The Portuguese political situation remained quite confusing. Joao VI alternated between conservatism and liberalism, Brazil and Portugal to the end of his life (what came in 1828). His second son Dom Miguel, leader of the Portuguese reactionaries, attempted a rebellion during his father's illness in 1825, but was in the end defeated and expelled; he returned in 1828 and claimed the Portuguese throne, causing a civil war with his elder brother Dom Pedro (Pedro IV). In the end, with the assistance of Britain, Spain and France, Pedro IV prevailed and reconquered Portugal. Like his father, however, he was forced to walk the line between the interests of Portugal and Brazil, and those of the reformist ministers and the old nobility. In 1830, he once more moved to Brazil, leaving the managing of Portugal to the liberal parliament and Prime Minister Joao Francisco de Saldanha. Thus Joao VI's personal union of Portugal and Brazil begun to devolve further into a loose monarchic federation, though a one still somehow holding together.
The developments in Britain's foreign policy - as well as developments in other countries caused by the British foreign policy - would have great (and often enough grave) reprecussions for all of the world, up to the end of the 19th century, and indirectly beyond it.
The Old World Order: 1814-1830.
The Napoleonic nightmare was over, and at the first glance no traces remained of the Corsican's evil empire. Yet almost immediately after that first glance, the nobles, the diplomatws and the rulers of Europe were confounded with the fact that, at the same time, very little remained of the ancien regime. The legal and social achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte weren't as easily neutralised as the political and military ones, and in any case, the third estate was definitely much stronger than before in most countries, while the power of the old nobility was severely shaken. On the greater European scale, in the diplomatic realm, things were also not as they were before. The Holy Roman Empire was dead; borders were redrawn; states were destroyed and created, rulers were dethroned and crowned. With the Great French War and related conflicts over and the short-lived dream of a Holy Alliance nipped in the bud, the Great Powers were ready to start intriguing with and against each other once again. Alliances were revived, diplomatic revolutions were made, subsidies were sent out to insurgents and military demonstrations ensued.
Still, the early post-Napoleonic period was a fairly quiet time, when compared to what preceded it and to what came soon after.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had emerged from the Napoleonic Wars renewed and triumphant, if somewhat isolated in Europe. Under Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, who served for much of the discussed time period, the British reduced their involvement in European affairs considerably, with a certain exception for the Mediterranean and Iberian regions, wherein the British intervenned against Dom Miguel in Portugal, forced the end of Barbary Coast piracy with a series of bombardments and assumed protectorate over the Ionian Islands within the first ten years after the Wars. Aside from that British foreign policy concentrated on commercial, colonial and military ventures in New World and Asia, where there was much to do indeed. Most of Jenkinson's government however was more interested in domestic affairs, for obvious reasons - during and due to the Napoleonic Wars and the ongoing Industrial Revolution, social, political and economic tensions worsened, and grievances accumulated; now all of this had to be dealt with. While the industrialisation continued, the wealthy landowners remained politically predominant, as shown by the 1815 Corn Law, which introduced strong protective tariffs; Jenkinson himself was a free-trader, but supported this measure to both ease the transition to peace-time economy and to combat the huge national debt, combined with war-pensions. The gold standard was restored and taxes rose to help deal with those problems; consequently, riots and uprisings abounded, and were joined by political manifestations of assorted radicals and by the surviving Luddite groups. In 1818 Habeas Corpus had to be suspended [5], and in 1819 the "Six Acts" temporarily curtailed assorted political and personal freedoms; meanwhile, troops were employed to crack down on rioters. The 1820s saw a comparative easing; the Combination Laws (that prohibited trade unions) were repealed and the Catholic Emancipation was finally achieved, at least officially. In 1828 Jenkinson resiged due to poor health; the rising-star Tory politician Robert Peel replaced him as Prime Minister.