| Federative Republic of Lusitania República Federativa da Lusitânia (Portuguese) Timeline: Le pays du salut
OTL equivalent: Most of Argentina and Uruguay | ||||
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 Location of Lusitania
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| Capital (and largest city) | Abundância | |||
| Other cities | Bons Ares, Linda Costa, Entre Rios, São José, Salvação, Córdoba, Recife | |||
| Official languages | Portuguese | |||
| Regional languages | Spanish • Various Native Languages | |||
| Government | Federal Consulate Constitutional Republic | |||
| - | Consul | Luiz Machado | ||
| - | Vice Consul | Rodrigo Varejão | ||
| Legislature | National Congress | |||
| - | Upper house | Senate | ||
| - | Lower house | House of Deputies | ||
| Population | ||||
| - | 2021 estimate | 43,511,000 | ||
| Currency | Lusitanian Real | |||
Lusitania, Officially the Federative Republic of Lusitania (Portuguese:República Federativa da Lusitânia), is a country in South America. It is bordred by Antarctica to the north, Chile to the north and west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south. It is the 3rd largest country in South America by both population and landmass. Formerly a Portuguese colony, Lusitania has the largest L1 portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) population in the world and the third largest overall, with 43,511,000 citizens, almost all speak the language fluently.
Lusitania has a very rich cultural heritage, resulting from spanish colonialisation of the Rio the la Prata basin, Portuguese settelments and colonial disputes, Conquest by the portuguese in the Restoration War, Steady growth as colony replaces lost Brazil and becomes primary Portuguese colony in the Americas, Escape of Royals to Abundância and Independance, as well as 19th and 20th cenutries growth, wars, and prestige resulting in a wealthy history. Portuguese is the official language while Spanish and Various Indeginous Languages (Guaraní, Quechua, Qom etc.) are recognised on regional levels.
Lusitania is a Federal Republic headed by a Consul that is the Head of State as well as the head of Government, and is divied into 17 states that maintain certain autunomy from the federal government.
Lusitania is a member of the Congress of Nations (CoN), the Alliance of Democratic Nations (ADN), the Lusophone Commonwealth and the American Union (AU).
History[]
The history of the Rio de la plata region is the same as OTL until the 1570s.
In 1567 the portuguese would lead the disastrous assalut on Fort Coligny, establised by French Huguenouts, which would result in the slaughter of 1500 and capture of 200 more, whilst about 200 fled to the woods or on boats. Amogst the fleeing men was Mem de Sá, the Governor-General of Brazil, who was orderd to attack the french. As he made his way back to Salvador, he realised that the portuguse government, unhappy with the very high loss of life from the assualt and with other matters to worry about, wouldn't authorize another attack, and thus he came up with a long term plan to gain an edge against the French. They will focus for the time being on establishing as many settelments to the south of France Antarctique as possible, even further south than already existing cities, so that the French colony will be surrounded by portugese brazil and would be contained to a small territory by the sea. Thus they would establish cities in as far south as the Uruguay river, where they'll establish the Trindade Capitancy. by the early 1600s. This would prove less effeective than anticipated, as the Huguenout settelmet would have a large influx of Émigrés and most settelers would prefer to move to northern brazil to establish plantations and farms. The situation and effective status quo would largely stay the same until 1630, where as the Dutch rebelled against the spanish rule (whomst would also rule Portugal at that time as a part of the Iberian Union), the two merchant empires would utlies the geostaregic situation that made both of them enemies, to conquer each other's colonies. And thus the dutch would successfully occupy the northern coast of brazil, this would drasticly change the portuguese aproach to the situation in brazil, as after losing to the dutch (who had help from Antartican volunteers and ships, as well as a de facto Alliance with the Dutch Republic), the then governor Matias de Albuquerque would belive that in order to reconquer the north, he first needs to end the French Colony and consolidate his hold in Brazil, thus he would launch a second invasion on the than disperatly organized France Antarctique (which was at the time de jure under french suzernity, but de facto independant and divided into city-states). This invasion would not only fail, due to a larger Huguenot Army being 35,000 strong at it's highest from a very extensive Huguenot relocation to France Antarctique, better commanders and logistics, and help from the Netherlands, it would also directly result in the unification of the Antarctic settelments into the First Antarctic Confederation, which would go on to jointly with the dutch, invade the rest of brazil in a final attempt to stop portuguese assaults. By the end of the war it was obvious the portuguese lost Brazil, with 90% of the land occupied by Antarctic-Dutch forces, nd so the portuguese wishing to maintain the largely unconquered Trindade Capitancy, they would sue for peace in 1651, ceding everything but the Trindade capitancy to the Netherlands and Antarctica, as well as recognizing both of their independances. This loss would immidiatly cause the portuguese government to seek other coloinial endavours in the americas, and as they were already with a rebellious attitude toward the spanish, they would attempt to expand into the rio de la plata region, establising on an island at the Paraná River mouth the Abundância fort, as well as other forts all around the rio the la plata coast.
Conquest of the Spanish colony[]
As Philip IV & III of the Iberian Union countinued it's predecesor's attemps at integrating portugal into spain by supressing it's own autonomy, the portuguese would grow an animocity towards him and his rule, causing them in 1640 to revolt against Habsburg rule and declare Duke John II of Braganza as the new King of Portugal (reigning as King John IV of portugal).
This would lead to the 28 year long Restoration War, in which portugal would mainly fight border skirmishes with the spanish. But, realishing the unique oppurtunity, the portuguese would decide to invade the sparsly populated Governorate of the Rio de la Plata, which borderd southern portuguese settelments ,including Abundância.
The portuguese invasion would meet little resistance, securing Buenos Aires (modern day Bons Ares), Santa Fe, and Cordoba by the first month, but their fortunes would change at the battle of Asuncion, where the spanish colonial armies marching from Peru would secure a sound win. Thus, the portuguese would slowly lose grond and even lose the city of Cordoba, but by the time they could liberate the coastal regions, the spanish and the portuguese would sign the treaty of Lisbon, and in it they will officially cede the currently occupied regions by the portuguese to them, and due to a poor wording of the document, portugal would consider the entire governorate to be ceded to them, whilst Spain would stick to only cedeing territories ocupied by portugal, thius would create a logstanding border dispute, that would only be resolved after the Great Southern War.
Establishbemt of the La Prata Viceroyalty[]
Following the war, portugual was left with fairly large territory but with a small population, this land would be initially integrated into the Government-General of Brazil (at this point controlling only the Trindade capitancy whilst still caliming the entirety of brazil, as portugual ceded it but didn't yet abandon it's claims to it.), with Linda Costa ruling the lands directly as unorgenized territories.
Following the loss of brazil and the newly conqered regions many brazilian settlers, especially land and slave owners, would migrate to these territories on mass. These migrations have their origins all the way back when the portuguese lost brazil, but as the dutch and initially the Hugenout authorities placated them with complete freedom of religion and non-interference in their ways of life, it was rather small unimportand. This would change when the Antarctic Council would decide to limit the trade rights of portugese citizens, in order to protect the Huguenot traders, a move that would lead to the Brasileiros (Brazilian/Antarctic citizens of Portuguese decent) revolt of 1656 , and their failure would lead to a mass exodus of them, both by those that were angry at the measures as well as by many that were forcefully removed and exiled. And As the portugese govenment drained it's coffers in the war against the spaniards, it demanded higer dividends from it's colonies, and as brazil lost the majority of it's landmass and wealth-generating resources (Brazilwood, plantations etc.) it looked for other means to turn a profit, and so they would encourage the migration of the Brasileiros to the new territories, selling generous land grants to them as well as establishing captaincies that would be under hereditary rule of the richest ones.
Transfer of Portuguese court and Independence[]
In late 1807, Spanish and Napoleonic forces threatened the security of continental Portugal, causing Prince Regent João, in the name of Queen Maria I, to move the royal court from Lisbon to Abundância. There they established some of Lusitania's first financial institutions, such as its local stock exchanges and its National Bank, additionally ending the Portuguese monopoly on Lusitanian trade and opening Lusitania to other nations.
With the end of the Peninsular War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince Regent João return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient European monarchy to reside in a colony. This would be counterd by voices (mainly in Lusitania) that viewed the latets developments as steps further towards higher integration of the two countries and that wanted to establish a united kingdom, but due to resentment to the idea back in Lisbon, the royal family would in 1815 relocate to Portugal.
This was viewd as abandonment by the Lusitanians, and it, along with raized taxes and tarrifs that were meant to repay the war debt and reconstruction back in portugal, would lead in 1823 to the Lusitanian Revolution. After 5 year of war, Portugual would officially recognize the Independence of Lusitana.
Rise of the modern state[]
Follwing the established of an independent Lusitania, the govenment of Consul José Oliveira and constecuvie govenments would focus on liberalizing the economy and the political systems, as well as encouraging immigration from europe and opening the borders for them. this would result in a surge of migrants, with 300,000 arriving by 1850, most of which would become farmers and miners that would greatly help the lusitanian economy, as lusitanian produce would become higly praised in europe. Throughout the early years of independence, relations between Antarctica and Lusitania would greatly improve from their passivly hostile history during the colonial period, this is mainly due to Antarctica being very sympathetic to their indepence cause and actively supporting it, sending volunteers and guns across the border. After the victoey in the war, these cordial relasions would evolve into very close relations, with the countries quickly becoming each other main trading partner and them establishing an official military alliance in 1849, this was done not only due to their friendly relaitions, but also because they both had a common enemy in Gran Colombia.