New Years Day, 1883
The world grows colder, and every year governments are being forced to take risks with national budgets, trade deals, and foreign policy. Many countries stifled unrest in colonies this year brought on about by overextension.
The United States of Central America and the Confederation came to terms that would ultimately benefit the USCA. The leadership of both countries inked a trade deal that would lower legacy import duties on agricultural products, essentially granting the USCA a new export market for its relatively significant agricultural product. The deal is poised to supplement the Confederations reliance on fish stocks and decrease the price of food at home.
And who doesn't like coffee?
However, the lowering, even slightly, of the price of agricultural products and food in the Confederation is secondary to the bigger piece of news to emerge from the Pacific. A Confederation naval squadron sailed into the Bay of Hilo, and through that display of naval strength, forced the short and bloody reign of King Kalakaua to an undignified end. Kalakaua would be killed by a mob two months later.
Other major news is the establishment of the Confederation Colonial Police, officially part of the Confederate Army. The CCP has been tasked in keeping the peace in the rough and tumble frontier settlements; especially those in Arizona and Western Oklahoma, a region plagued by raids from cannibalistic tribes of the death lands.
This isnt to say that the USCA hasnt had success outside the realm of opening up an export market. The USCA continues to provide the financial and military support to settlers migrating northwards into Mexico and southwards along the Pacific coast of Central America.
In the Middle East, the uneasy relationship between the Persian and Russian Empires has taken another hit with minor skirmishes breaking out between Persian and Russian irregular forces and settlers in the troubled Afghanistan and Turkmenistan regions.This comes on the heels of Russian forces securing the valuable port city of Karachi, gaining the ability to trade without resorting to shipping goods across the Caspian to sell to Georgian middlemen.
Elsewhere, the Ottoman Empires political reforms are beginning to bear fruit. Acknowledging the pressure on the central government, the constitutional parliament decreed that some central powers will be ceded to newly-created local governments. The laws on this federalist system have been many, including federal exemption of Sunni Islamic institutions and persons from federal taxes. As the Ottoman Empire stabilizes, the ability of the empire to mobilize labor to improve urban infrastructure increases.
Not all these developments have been met positively. Non-Sunni Muslims have been barred from positions in the new federal parliament, and in some locally-administered provinces, there are questions whether or not the local governments have authority to tax Sunni Muslims. Some local governments have done so anyway, stating that ideology is secondary to continued operations at this time.
This discussion comes at an important time as the tension between Georgia and the Ottoman Empire increases as border disputes become more common place following the July War.
One of the new military towns built by Georgia on the Black Sea
In somber news, Shah Naser al-Din Shah Qajar is dead after years of illness mere days after reaching out to the Russian and Georgian Empires for infrastructure treaties. The deal has fallen on deaf ears.
Finally in India, Hyderabad is once again part of civilization. President Bagchis October speech in that city has been met with widespread praise by critics within the Republic, and the governments push on restoring production and markets has given the subcontinent a glimmer of hope.
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