Kapitel 20: Summary, end of the first part.
Summary, Independence Wars and Congress Latin America 1810-1830.
AN: This is the summary for everything that has happened in the Timeline up to this point. It's just the brief version, and if you have already read the timeline and all the key updates I'm going to post in an index under this, you don't need to read this. For those of you that don't know it, the objetive of the Timeline is creating a better, more democratic and stable Latin America by TTL's 2016. In other words, I'm going to make all of Latin America developed, with at least one great power there.
In 1810, after the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain, the Spanish colonies in the American continent entered in chaos. The colonies, influenced by the ideals of the French and American revolutions, and led by the Criollos, ethnic Europeans who had been neglected and discriminated against by the Peninsulares, started to declare independence. In Colombia, such a movement took place in Santafe and Caracas. While the revolution in the latter was successful, enacting a Republic and Constitution under the General Simon Bolivar, the former failed, with most of the responsible people executed. This convinced the two great factions in Colombia, the Centralists and Federalists, that team work was necessary to reach independence. Led by Francisco de Miranda, who instead of trying to land in Caracas goes to Patriot held Cartagena and is voted supreme commander and President, the Republic of Colombia proceeded to conquer Venezuela and the remaining of Cundinamarca region in two major campaigns, which were led by Bolivar and Santander.
In the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, the Independence Wars started similarly, but the Spanish managed to retain control of Uruguay (Provincias Orientales, ITTL) and Paraguay. Forced into a three front war, and even attacked by the Portuguese monarchy in exile in Brazil, La Plata saw its originally great success reduced into ineffectual campaigns, including Belgrado's march to Paraguay and the siege of Montevideo. Even the only totally successful campaign, the one in Alto Peru, ran out of steam and La Plata ended up forced to rely in partisan "Gauchos" to hold the line against Peru. Combined with severe infighting and a blockade, this brought great destruction to the Platinean state, which finally collapsed into civil war between the Federalist "Orientales" led by Artigas and the Centralist "Unitarios", led by a dictatorial triumvirate that got to power thanks to a coup. Its most prominent member, San Martin, was the one to lead it.
At the same time, revolts broke down in Brazil, starting a years long civil war, filled with terrorism and sabotage. The situation in Europe prevented the Portuguese from putting it down. In Chile, after an Independence-friendly Criollo junta was ousted by a Royalist Peninsular junta, the Patriots went into guerrilla and partisan warfare in the south, with their leader O'Higgins.
While all this was happening, the Padre Hidalgo called for the Independence of Mexico, but his campaigns failed and Mexico was consequently trapped in several years of destructive warfare. Colombia, meanwhile, continued attacking the Spanish held territory, managing to take several important cities such as Panama, Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca thanks to smaller revolutions broking down there, expulsing the Spanish and thus allowing the Colombians to either siege until they surrendered or take the intact cities after defeating the Spanish forces outside of them. After the core territory of New Granada is liberated, Colombia moved to the offensive against Peru.
In Europe, Napoleon's advances were halted by the Russians, and Napoleon, after contracting an infectious disease, decided to retreat from Russia. A grand portion of the Grande Armee is thus saved from complete destruction, but Napoleon dies during his last battle. As France still held large swathes of Europe, included the war-torn Iberian Peninsula, the French leadership was able to get a negotiated peace. In the congress of Vienna, France was able to conserve Wallonia, Brussels, Luxembourg, Nice, Savoy, but losing Corsica. The Netherlands got Flanders, while everything else is mostly the same, with changes in Italy, Poland, Finland and a reorganization of the German states into the German Confederation. The big difference was political, where France is a constitutional monarchy that decides to form a "Liberal-block", and to do so props Liberal revolutions up in Spain and Portugal, which became Constitutional Monarchies as well. Spain tried to improve its rule over the only colonies not in revolution, and started La Reconquista to take New Spain back. The great winner is still Great Britain, which became the greatest power of the world, starting La Pax Britannica.
In North America, a solution was managed with the United States, which prevented the war of 1812 for the time being. Eventually, though, the War Hawks and an incident at sea pressured Madison into declaring war. Unbeknownst to him, the UK was free of war and thus was able to bring its full might against the Americans, who lost catastrophically and were forced to give much of their northern territories to Canada. A last humiliation comes when certain Andrew Jackson is defeated by the British after the signing of the treaty of peace. The economy was ruined, and the following presidents were barely able to repair it. Major mistakes also included appeasing and even favoring the South and collapsing banks and big enterprises in favor of little ones.
Going back to Latin America, Colombia managed to defeat Peru and take Lima by 1816. Royalist efforts all through the continent collapsed, allowing the revolutions in Chile, Charkas ((TTL's Bolivia)) and Paraguay (under Francia) to succeed. La Plata finished its civil war too late, but at least they took Oriental Provinces back. A revolution also took place in Central America, giving birth to the USCA which takes territory up to southern Mexico, with the Spaniards allowing that because they didn't want to deal with them.
In the following Congress of Cucuta, the new nations are organized. La Plata ended up a loose confederation, and with San Martin exiled, Artigas and his federalists held the power for the moment. Colombia placed itself as the premier power in South America, organizing the Peruvian Protectorate. Santo Domingo ((OTL Republica Dominicana)) joins the union shortly after, only to be attacked by Haiti. Colombia counter-attacked and organized the dysfunctional and disunited Haiti into a puppet state, a Benevolent Dictatorship to which the Haitians were loyal thanks to the Colombian rule being better than the years of Terror that took place beforehand.
In Mexico, both Insurgents and Royalists rallied behind a young man, Agustin de Iturbide, as their leader. He represented a middle ground to all factions, finally liberating Mexico. After the Spaniards refused to rule Mexico as anything but a colony, the Mexican Empire was founded, with Agustin I as Emperor of Mexico. The death of several figures in La Reconquista, like Santa Anna, ensured the stability of the Mexican Empire, which went to a great age, settling Texas and gaining some territory back from the USCA. In Brazil, the kings were forced back to Portugal, but the Prince remained and declared independence, founding the Brazilian Empire with himself, Pedro I, as Emperor.
France forced Spain and Portugal to recognize the Independence of their former colonies in 1824. After doing so, they acquired especial interest in Latin America, a region they saw as a little brother thanks to Latin common heritage. They scored an alliance with Mexico and La Plata, but failed with the "Colombian block" (Colombia, Charkas, Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Haiti, Central America) and Brazil, though they still invests in them.
The Era (1817-1832) was known as Congress Latin America, a peaceful era of reconstruction and industrialization, especially for Colombia, which used its resources wisely, especially playing British fears of French dominance in the Americas. Colombia got high amounts of immigration and investment, allowing it to become the second most powerful nation, only under the United States. Still, the nation had problems, but after Bolivar tried to pull a coup d'état and failed, Colombia is temporally secured under President Santander.
Europe continues to be relatively peaceful, with several events unfolding, like the German Question, the rise of Nationalism, Greek Revolution and Russo-Turkish War. The Battle of Navarino still ends in an Ottoman defeat, but it's not catastrophic since France was not allowed to take part in the expedition against the Ottoman Empire. Charles X was able to remain in throne thanks to France already being a Constitutional Monarchy. France still commenced the conquest of Algeria, Mohammad Ali started to organize in Egypt and Britain consolidated its rule in India.
In Peru, La Mar became a dictator and eventually declared war in Colombia. Colombia struggled at first, even losing Guayaquil, but after a while they lured Peru into attacking their fortified positions and destroyed their army. This great victory rose moral and sent Colombia into a patriotic frenzy, destroying other Peruvian Army and taking Guayaquil back. Peru collapsed under civil war after La Mar was deposed in a coup, and Colombia marched practically unopposed to Lima, putting Santa Cruz into power, taking some coastal territory and the Chincha Islands.
However, the events mark the end of Congress Latin America, which finally collapsed. The region now is going to enter a new era, characterized for the race of five countries, Colombia, La Plata, Brazil, Mexico and the United States, for supremacy in the Americas.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
jjj_c_mmut
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