Timeline (Weird America)

==&nbsp King George's Revenge 1800-1820==

1800 Treaty of Ildefonso - Spain cedes Louisiana to France in return for Napoleon Bonaparte creating a small kingdom for the son-in-law of Charles IV in central Italy

1803 Spain finally hands Louisiana back to France. Twenty days later France sells the whole territory to the United States for $15,000,000

1807-1812 Anger at the boarding of American ships by the British Navy in search of cargo being sent to France and possible deserters from the Royal Navy increases.

1810 Several pro-war congressmen are elected. The most prominent of these 'warhawks' are John Caldwell Calhoun and Henry Clay.

1812 A party of Russians led by Ivan Kuskov land at Bodega Bay in California and start the construction of an outpost known as Fort Ross. Building is finished later the same year.

The United States declare war on Britain on June 18th. The war is opposed by much of Federalist New England.

1812 Attempts by the American Army to invade Canada fail. Napoleon Bonaparte falls from his horse and dies while leading the retreat of his army from Moscow. An armistice is immediately signed in Europe. This allows Britain to many additional, battle-hardened troops to America thus turning events in their favour.

1813 US troops burn York in Canada.

Battle of Thames - An American force led by William Henry Harrison is defeated by a combination of British regulars and Indian led by the Shawnee chief Tecumseh. This is sweet revenge for Tecumseh for his brother 'The Prophet' was defeated by Harrison at Tippecanoe in 1811

1814 The British successfully take Washington DC and Baltimore but progess is slower in the south. The Americans' only major victory in the War occurs when General Andrew Jackson stops a British attempt to take New Orleans.

Federalist leaders from all over New England meet in Hartford Conneticut. Anger with the progress of "Mr Madison's War" has hardened attitudes and the final result of the Convention is that, allowing for support from the army and state militias, New England should secede to form a separate republic.

1815 A peace treaty is signed in Ghent, Belgium. Two clauses lead to the loss of a major part of American territory.

1. The Government of the United States of America undertakes to cede to The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland such land within the former Lousiana Territory that lies north of the Platte River.

2. The Government of the United States of America undertakes give up any claim to the land currently making up the State of Ohio and Territories of Wisconson, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Ownership of the said land will return to its original inhabitants.

To protect this new nation the US Navy is banned from the Great Lakes.

When news of the provisions of the treaty reaches America there is uproar. President James Madison decides to 'jump before h is pushed' and resigns. President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Senator John Gaillard (SC) becomes acting President.(since VP Elbridge Gerry had died the previous year)

The New England Federalists, having consulted with regional military leaders announce the formation of the Republic of New England. A month after the creation of the new state New York seccedes from the US and joins the RNE. Dewitt Clinton who had been defeated by Madison in the Presidential election of 1812 is made acting President of the RNE. A US delegation led by John Quincy Adams fails to persuade the RNE to rescind the seccesion. Adams decides to stay in the RNE stating "I had hope to stop this split in our young nation. However if my home state of Massachusetts is leaving the Union I must follow my conscience and leave the Union as well". The 'warhawks' in the US demand that the RNE be forced back into the Union. The Senate votes for war. Andrew Jackson is appointed commander-in-chief of the US army.

US forces move into New York from Pennsylvania but are pushed back. Lines remain static in New Jersey.

1816 Pro-RNE demonstrations take place in Delaware and Maryland, both of which backed Clinton in 1812. A nervous US government attempts to put stop the demos using troops fail. Many of the soldiers involved are local and sympathise with the demonstrators. When the army is asked to fire on the demonstrators many soldiers refuse and join the demos themselves. An armed uprising takes over Baltimore for a few days, but is defeated by out of state troops. Many of the leaders of the uprising are killed by firing squad. This causes the uprising to spread throughout both Delaware and Maryland. US troops are withdrawn from the frontline to deal with the situation. This allows RNE troops to make major advances into Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

RNE forces under Major-General George Croghan. reach Maryland and join up with the pro-RNE rebels. The US government flees Washington and moves to Charlotte, North Carolina. Acting President Gaillard signs an armistice with the RNE. New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland all become part of the RNE as does the eastern two thirds of Pennsylvania. The political establisment in the US blames Andrew Jackson for the loss of the war and he is court-martialled. His peripheral involvment in Aaron Burr's plot to invade Spanish territory is brought up again. In the end Jackson is merely discharged from the army. A civilian court, equally sympathetic to him only bans him from holding public office for three years.

Great Britain is the first country to diplomatically recognise the RNE. The other European powers follow suit at various times during the next year.

1817 John C. Calhoun wins the US Presidential election. His only opponent is Henry Clay. Calhoun nominates Clay as his vice-president

Timothy Pickering defeats Dewitt Clinton in the first election for President of the RNE.He appoints Harrison Gray Otis as his vice president.

1817-19 Both the US and the RNE are exhausted from the two recent wars. Both nations spend the next few years rebuilding socially, economically and militarily. In the US there are constant calls for a another war with the RNE, but President Calhoun realises the time is not right and decides to play the long game Andrew Jackson embarks on a series of speaking tours defending his actions in the "War Between the States" and attacking the treaty signed at the end of that war and the one signed after the War of 1812.

1820 Andrew Jackson is asked by several prominent citizens of New Orleans to run for Governor of Louisana. Jackson is a great hero to Louisianans because of his defence of New Orleans. He wins a stunning victory, sending a shiver down the spine of President Calhoun.

Key to map

R.N.E. = Republic of New England U.S.A. = United States of America M.W.T. = Mid West Territory I.N. = Indian Nation B.N.A = British North America O.T. = Oregon Territory N.S. = New Spain

Go West, Old Hickory 1821-1825
1821 - The capital of the RNE moves from Washington to New York City

A new state, Arkansas joins the Union. (This Arkansas is larger than the one in OTL) Most of the residents of the state are 'refugees' from the land that now makes up the Indian Territory. They blame the US government for their enforced movement and hate the 'traitors' in Charlotte almost as much as Andy Jackson does. The first Governor of the new state, Joseph MacDonald is one of the 'incomers'.

The Spanish colonies of North America declare their independence from the mother country. This has been made possible by the somewhat chaotic state in Spain. Liberal army officers revolted in 1820 when King Ferdinand organised an expedition to bring the colonies back under stronger Spanish control (during the Napoleonic Wars while Spain had been conqueored by France, the colonies ran their own affairs. In Mexico a previously loyal officer named Augustin Iturbide decided to switch side when mopping up after a previous revolt. His revolt succeeds where others have failed and the Spanish colonies in North America become the Empire of Mexico with Iturbide becoming Emperor Augustin.

Presidents Calhoun and Pickering are both re-elected with slightly reduced majorities.In the US the losing candidate is George Poindexter. After his defeat he and fellow liberal members of the Democratic-Republican Party leave to form a new party, the Liberal Party.

1822 - Governors Jackson and MacDonald meet in New Orleans. Ostensibly this is just common political courtesy but the US government is nervous as both have made no attempt to hide their dislike of the national government and could be said to have built their political careers on it.

The US goverment leaves Charlotte, which was oinly ever meant to have been a temporary home and moves to Atlanta, Georgia

The British government purchases the Oregon Territory from the North West Company who have been running it almost as a private colony.

Tecumseh sends a delegation to President Calhoun to talk about about masked men who having making crossborder raid from the US into the Indian Territory

More and more incomers move into Louisiana and Arkansas.

Key to map

R.N.E. = Republic of New England U.S.A. = United States of America M.W.T. = Mid West Territory I.N. = Indian Nation B.N.A = British North America M.S. = Mexican Empire

1823 - Mexican nobles and army officers revolt against Emperor Augustin. In the resultant chaos forces from Louisiana and Arkansas, both regular army and militia units led by Governor Jackson himself launch an invasion of Mexico. They overwhelm the Mexican forces in the area and within months control a large swathe of Texas. The two sides in the Mexican Civil War are too involved in fighting to do anything about the incursion. In Atlanta President Calhoun is not somewhat relieved. His spies had noticed the build up of forces in Louisiana and Arkansas and he had been worried that they were aimed at him.

A number of settlers from the southern states of the US move into the New Territories as the land taken from Mexico are now called.

Newspapers in the RNE start calling Jackson the 'American Napoleon' and Calhoun 'King Louis'. This is not through any support for Jackson but through a sense of ridiculing him and Calhoun.

1824 - Emperor Augustin is overthrown by the rebels. Jackson's successful 'invasion' of Texas was the final straw and his few remaining loyal troops began to desert him. On 5th March rebel troops enter the capital and a a few days later Augustin is shot by firing squad.The leader of the revolution Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is proclaimed President of the Republic of Mexico.

Since it's establishment more than ten years ago the Russian outpost at Fort Ross has grown in significance. What began as a simple trading post has become that Holy Grail of Russian naval policy; a warm water port. The Imperial Russian Navy has a permanent presence there. Some members of the Imperial government begin to think about expanding Fort Ross into a Russian penal colony not unlike the British have done with Australia.

The remnants of the Democratic-Republican Party in the RNE join with Federalist opponents of President Pickering to form the National Party. The new party is only united by its dislike of the current government.

The success of the invasion of Texas led by Governor Jackson persuades leading members of the Democratic-Republican Party in Atlanta to ask Jackson to stand in the forthcoming presidential election.

In the US Presidential elections, President Calhoun is up against George Poindexter and Andrew Jackson. Poindexter’s Liberal party has grown steadily in strength since the last presidential election and has a dozen members in the US Senate.

In the RNE President Pickering has to face Martin van Buren, candidate of the National party and former General William Henry Harrison. . Since the British released him four years after the War of 1812 Harrison has led a small but vociferous anti-British movement called the True American Party. The TAP constantly attacks the Federalists for being “the heirs of Benedict Arnold”

1825 The Imperial Russian Government purchases from Mexico the land that would become the states of California and Nevada in OTL. The price is $4,000,000. Most of the Mexican inhabitants decide to stay. The change of government doesn’t mean much to them, one overlord is much the same as any other. The new territory is renamed New Russia. Construction is started on a purpose built prison. Karl Ivanovich Schmidt, Ivan Kuskov's successor as governor of Fort Ross is made governor of New Russia and sends out a number of survey teams so as to gain a clearer picture of the new lands.

And Then There Were Seven 1825-1829
1825 cont.

In the US election President Calhoun gets the worst possible result. He beats Jackson but only by the narrowest of results. The narrowness of his victory is down to his opponent Senator Albert Hughes' victory in his home state of Virginia. If either Calhoun or Jackson had taken Virginia then they would have won. Soon after the results are announced Jackson and his supporters start to mutter that Calhoun and Hughes were in cahoots to deprive Jackson of victory. This suspicion is heightened when Hughes becomes Secretary of State in Calhoun's new administration

In the RNE's presidential election the Federalist candidate, Jeremiah Nelson wins (Pickering had decided not to run again). He is, however given a jolt when Van Buren wins New York and the new state of Franklin (which was the new name given to the third of Pennsylvania that the RNE gained in the war with the US)

In British North America the Governor-General introduces a new legal system for the Indians. Legal disputes between two members of the same tribe are settled using that tribes laws. If the dispute is between members of two different tribes then British law applies.

1826

During his innauguraion ceremony in Atlanta an attempt is made to assasinate President Calhoun. The attempted assasin is quickly captured and found to be a former citizen of Ohio, now living in the New Territories. Rumours quickly spread throughout the USA that Governor Jackson was part of the plot or, at the very least was aware of it

General Zachary Taylor is sent to take control of the New Territories and is given the title of Governor-General. The US government is determined not to repeat the mistakes of the Baltimore Riots of 1816 and so all the troops sent with Taylor are from states outside the southwest. This does not go down too well in Arkansas and Louisiana, let alone in the territories themselves.

1827

In New Russia the survey teams sent out by Governor Schmidt complete their work as do the builders of the network of prisions. The workers are given the choice of moving back to Russia or to take up the Imperial Government's offer of land in the new colony. A small majority elects to stay.

In newspapers throughout the southwestn of the US pictures start to appear of General Taylor dressed as a Hessian mercenary from the War of Indepence. The people of the region are beginning to see the national government in Atlanta as a distant landlord, much as the earlier colonists saw the British.

A force calling itself "The Sons of George Washington" lets off a series of bombs in the Indian Nation. Needless to say this lead to an increase in tension between the Nation and the RNE. An investigation by military intelligence discovers a connection between the Sons and the True American Party. A member of the Sons who is arrested and put under severe pressure reveals that the leadership of the Sons and that of the TAP are virtually concurrent. The leadersship of the TAP/Sons are arrested and put on trial. Most of the leaders are sent to prision for at least 10 years. William Henry Harrison himself in given a sentence of 15 years. The True American Party is allowed to remain in existence but is warned to "behave yourself or you'll get what for!!"

1828

In Russia Tsar Alexander dies suddenly. The Decembrist Society, a group of nobles and army officers disillusioned with Alexander's drift towards conservatism attempt, by way of a coup to persuade his brother Constantine who had previously removed himself from the line of succesion to take the throne. Due to poor organisation and a widespread lack of support the coup fizzles out after a few days. In a example of the almost feudal nature of Russian society the Decembrists who are noble are sent into exile while most of the rest are executed. The exiles are sent to New Russia. Althought the penal coloby covers a large area most of the exiles end up living close to military forts. This has benefits for both prisoner and guard. The exiles gain military protection from any bandits etc. while the Russian finds it easier to keep an eye on the exiles

Andy Jackson stands for re-election as Governor of Louisiana. He beats the other candidate who is supported by the US government by an almighty margin. In a very controversial move President Calhoun reports Jackson to the Supreme Court for alleged electoral irregularities. The Court throw out the case almost immediately and condemns Calhoun's actions as 'farcical'. After he returns to New Orleans Jackson declares that he no longer accepts the authority of "those miscreants in Atlanta". The day after that speech the Louisiana state Senate votes to seccede from the Union and is followed two days later by Arkansas. These moves are supported by the militia units and most of the regular army from those two states. President Calhoun's reaction to the news from the southwest is a mix of anger that Jackson has dared to do this and a strange feeling that his previous attempts to destroy Jackson's career now seem justified. One of the US government's first action to to take the national senators from Louisiana and Arkansas into what is euphemistically called "protective custody"

1829

US Army regiments reach the southwest and take up positions all along the border with the two rebel states. There is a tense stand-off for a few weeks, as neither side wants to the one that causes this family disagreement to descened into all-out war. Unfortunately a unit from one side, no-one know which lets off a volley of rifle fire and things quickly snowball from there. US forces make initial advance into Louisian from Georgia. In the New Territories the forces under the command of General Taylor find themselves restricted to their bases. Any patrols that venture out come under attack from guerillas loyal to Jackson.

In March President Calhoun get more bad news when units of the New England Army move into the US. This action isn't in support of Andy Jackson but is merely an attempt to grab that part of Pennsylvania that remained in the US after the "War between the States"

Volunteer from all over the United States travel to the southwest in order to take up arms in support of Jackson. The most prominent of theses is the one of the US senators for Tennesse, David Crockett. He had served under Jackson in the War of 1812 and since being elected to the Senate in 1826 had been one of his strongest supporters. The new additions to his forces allow Jackson to launch an offensive and his army pushes the US forces back across the border.

Key to map

U.S.A.=United States of America R.N.E.=Republic of New England I.N.=Indian Nation T.R.=Texarkana Republic B.N.A.=British North America R.O.M.=Republic of Mexico R.A.=Russian America

Recuerde El Alamo 1830-
1830

Andy Jackson sends several columns of troops into the New Territories to begin the reconquest of the region. The task of the northernmost (and largest) column is to mop up the remnants of General Taylor’s command. Taylor’s demoralized troops are easily defeated and by March General Taylor himself is a prisoner in New Orleans. After arresting Taylor the column moves on gaining control of part of the Mid West Territory.

Another column moves towards San Antonio, which is the closest large town currently under the control of the Mexican army. The two remaining columns move inland to the south, one hugging the coast so as to prevent any Mexican advance towards New Orleans.

The central column moves towards San Antonio fairly quickly but finds taking the town itself a more difficult task. It is garrisoned by several of the toughest units of the Mexican army. The officer in command of column decides to take a gradualist approach to the taking of the town. After a few days the only part of San Antonio that are still under his control is an old mission station known as the Alamo. All that remains of his command are little over 200 men. The American commander has something like 3,000 men. The Mexicans refuse to surrender and on the morning of 22nd February the Americans launch the final assault. Attacks are made on all four walls at the same time. The first attacks are beaten back but by mid-afternoon the unit attacking the west wall, led by Colonel David Crockett manages to get a foothold. After that the fight for the Alamo is as good as over and within an hour every last Mexican defender is either dead or dying. While sifting through the bodies Crockett’s men discover about half a dozen corpses dressed uniforms belonging to the US Army. A quick look at their belongings show that they had been part of General Taylor’s command.

When the news of the US soldiers found fighting on the side of the Mexicans at the Alamo reaches New Orleans General Taylor claims that he had been ordered by his superiors to give the Mexican forces tacit support. The idea that American soldiers fought alongside foreign soldiers against fellow Americans with what seems like the backing of the US government causes uproar in Atlanta.

The shock at the news from the Alamo, along with more general concerns about President Calhoun and the conduct of the war against the rebel states leads the US Senate to begin impeachment proceedings against Calhoun.