In 1776, the United States (Verenigde Staaten) gained its independence from the Dutch colony of Nieuw Holland. It was 5 years later in 1781 when the Jacksonian or American Wars (1781-1835) began with the American Liberation Front's (ALF) first forays into the French colonies of Quebec and Louisiana. The city of Fort-Detroit quickly fell. An incensed Dutch government called foul, claiming that the Americans had broken the treaty of Nieuw Amsterdam which had granted the Americans independence, thus voiding it, and declared war. The mighty Caliphate of Portugal came to the aid of its French allies, bringing along its protectorate, the recently reformed Sultanate of Egypt (see Fall of the Arab Caliphate, chapter 3), and its ally, the Mayan Free State (at the time under the reform-minded king Joao IV of Maya).
Little did the Luso-French alliance know, that the American dictator, Andrew Jackson (see Early History of Nieuw Holland, chapter 7), had appealed to the Italian Emperor, Vittorio Emanuele I, with an offer of alliance. The emperor's realm was mighty, with its acquisitions in the Turkish Wars of the previous century robbing that collapsing empire of its Libyan territories (see Turkish Wars, chapter 7), but Italy was in fact quickly losing cohesion. A series of peasant revolts in Sicily and the Greek-speaking portions of southern Italy, as well as the economic slump of the mid 18th Century, threatened to tear the great Italian Empire apart at the seams. Vittorio perhaps saw in the youthful Jackson and the new American military powerhouse a great potential, as well as a great opportunity. Almost as soon as American troops paraded through the Michigan Territory, Italian troops poured into Savoy and Provence. The Kingdom of Germany, a vassal kingdom under control of Vittorio's brother, joined Italy in attacking France, besieging French positions along the Rhine.
Unbeknownst to the French-Dutch-Portuguese coalition, a missive was sent at the same time to the governor of Calixtlahuaca, the Malinese occupation zone of the former Nahuatl Empire (see Rise and Fall of the Aztecs, chapter 6), by Jackson. The small Malinese garrison in Calixtlahuaca left the city, heading north to attempt a lightning strike at the French occupation zone of Tlacopan. To the misfortune of the Malinese, the French seemed to know of the attack long beforehand, and took the now-unprotected city of Calixtlahuaca, leaving the Malinese without a supply line. The Malinese retreated into the wilderness to begin a guerilla campaign, destroying French and Mayan farms and roads. Though for the Malinese the operation had been an unmitigated disaster, it had gone exactly according to plan for Jacksonian America. The man who had informed the French of the impending Malinese attack had been none other than an American spy. The Malinese were removed as a factor in the Central American campaign, and the French zone around Tlacopan was now entirely unprotected. A passing American force burned the city to the ground, and proceeded onward to occupy large swathes of the Great Plains and Rockies in the name of the great Leader, Andrew Jackson.
Over the next twenty years, the American juggernaut rolled inexorably north and east, smashing all French opposition. Soon, all of America north of the former Nahuatl Empire (except for the small English colony of Newfoundland) was under the dominion of Jacksonian America. With its colonies lost and its homeland assaulted by the Italians in the east and now Spain in the west, France utterly crumbled as a nation. Toulouse and Lyon were annexed by the Spanish and Italian Empires respectively. The Italian Empire's dying day was delayed by another century (see next chapter). The Caliphate of Portugal quickly took control of the French occupation zone in Central America, and futilely tried to amass troops along the Rio Grande to attempt any sort of offensive action into the American behemoth that now loomed in the north.
Any such hopes were crushed in 1830 during the Battle of the Azores, in which the new American navy smashed the hopelessly antiquated Portuguese navy off the coast of Ponta Delgada. The American fleet set up a formidable blockade around the Portuguese homeland, and Portugal's colonies in Africa and its occupation zone in Mexico withered on the vine. Portugal's fate was finally sealed by the treachery of the Spanish, who launched a surprise attack, seizing Lisboa in the name of Rey Felipe. The Caliphate of Portugal is generally accepted to have collapsed in 1832, but only after half the population of Portugal itself was starved to death. The American forces seized the Azores as a naval base, and Portugal proper was annexed by Spain. The Portuguese occupation zones were merged with those of the Maya, who annexed them into their Empire the following June. America signed a rather lenient peace with the Maya, who would soon grow to become a major American trading partner.
The Egyptians were not so lucky. Without the protection of the Portuguese navy, Egypt was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty with the Jacksonians, giving almost its entire gold reserve, as well as staggering yearly reparations. But with an American fleet parked menacingly in the harbor at Eskenderyya, there was little the Egyptians could do but relent.
It wasn't until 1835 that the war finally ended. The Japanese Empire, acting in conspiracy with the Americans, seized Dutch New Guinea, and the Dutch only sued for peace as the Americans were negotiating a joint naval strike at Holland itself. The Dutch refused to give the Americans anything, signing a white peace. The Japanese paid a sort of "loan" on New Guinea, paying every year for the next fifty years to hold the island before returning it to the Dutch. The Japanese, feeling betrayed by their supposed American "allies", retreated to their home island, to plot their vengeance (see next chapter, the Pacific War).
With this, the Jacksonian wars finally drew to a close in a decisive American victory. The empires of France and Portugal had utterly collapsed, with the Netherlands somewhat weakened; if not in actual power, at least in prestige. Egypt was economically ruined, falling victim to increased depredation by a resurgent Ottoman Empire, which had resolved most of its internal issues by granting the Persians greater autonomy (see chapter after next, The Turkish-Persian Empire). The Maya were the only Coalition power who had actually come out for the better with the Wars, doubling their territory and throwing off Portuguese influence.
Both Spain and Italy had improved their standing on the European continent - at least for the time being - and the English no longer had to compete with Portuguese merchants across the world. The Malinese were bitter over the loss of their Mexican colony, but were somewhat mollified by being granted the city of Casablanca in Morocco, which gave Mali control over all West Africa. But it was Andrew Jackson's American empire who was the only unquestionable victor of the conflict. Jackson had gambled and won, his foolish bravado cementing his authority over an entire continent, leading his new country to the position of a Great Power, among the ranks of Italy, Spain, England, Russia, Mongolia, and the Turks. It is not without reason that the following two hundred years are called the American Centuries.