by Tom Anderson
[228] Unbelievably, the perfectly square Thouret départements were proposed in OTL, though they were never adopted.
[229] Lisieux’s naming of coal as a resource reflects how steam engines are growing in importance across the slowly industrialising republic. Of course, the fact that he was strongly involved in Cugnot’s operations means he is somewhat ahead of the rest of France in this respect.
[230] The term Guinea is here used in a vague sense to mean all of Sub-Saharan West Africa, as it often was in the period in OTL.
[231] An organisation of this name was founded in 1788 in OTL, but in TTL the name has been used a little earlier.
[232] OTL of course Banks accompanied Cook to Australia and gave his name to, among other things, banksia. Banks’ work here is a bit less eye-catching so he’s not a Sir (yet).
[233] In OTL, this sparked the infamous War of the Golden Stool in 1900 when a British Governor demanded the right to sit on it.
[234] Confusingly, in OTL Dahomey (after ceasing to be a French colony) changed its name to Benin after independence, while the original Benin is now part of Nigeria.
[235] While this may sound questionable, these were actually terms considered for the USA in OTL by the Founding Fathers, and given that Sierra Leone was originally called the Province of Freedom...
[236] Built on the site of OTL Freetown.
[237] Due to Prussia being reduced to a rump in TTL, Humboldt went to the Netherlands instead to get his university education, and then joined the Dutch East India Company in order to study new animals and plants in exotic climes.
[238] OTL, a British expedition in 1860 led by Clements Markham did the same for Ceylon/Sri Lanka, which is now a big producer of quinine.
[239] The Nivkhs are the native people of Sakhalin, who before this point acted as intermediaries between the Russians, Japanese, Chinese and Aynyu (what little contact there was).
[240] Anglophones may not realise it, but Baron (Karl Friedrich Hieronymus) von Münchhausen was a real person, a German who was page to Anthony Ulrich, Regent of Russia, and then joined the Russian Army and served in the wars against the Ottoman Empire. In TTL he has had a similar career, but also fought in the War of the Polish Partition and married a Lithuanian. His son Ulrich (named after his old master) has joined the Lithuanian navy as a marine; OTL he did not have children.
[241] As he did Malagasy in OTL when he came to Madagascar.
[242] OTL there was a more minor rebellion in 1789 – this, on the other hand, is as big as the 17th-century Shakushain’s Revolt.
[243] A system by which the Shogun essentially took members of the various Hans’ daimyo hostage in Edo, to guard against potential betrayal and factionalism.
[244] Niphon (not Nippon) is an archaic name for Honshu.
[245] In TTL Emperor Emperor Go-Momozono had a son, who became Emperor Tenmei, and married his daughter to a royal from a distant branch of the family (who in OTL became Emperor Kokaku). Tenmei’s name means ‘dawn’ and reflects a hope for a bright future after the disasters of the 1770s. A forlorn hope.
[246] Not the later OTL Tokugawa by that name, but an earlier use of the name.
[247] Up till this point this is all OTL. In TTL the Zands won, or rather stayed dominant rather than briefly holding power and then being defeated by the Qajars.
[248] A significant difference to OTL where it was his first son, Timur. Though the names of Ahmad Shah’s sons are the same as OTL, in character they are different to OTL, being born after the POD of this timeline. Timur was a bit of a Richard Cromwell-like figure to his father’s Oliver in OTL.
[249] Oudh is the contemporary English spelling of Awadh.
[250] Dalawa is the Keralan form of the title Dewan (Divan), which signifies ‘taxmaster’ in the original Persian/Mughal…however, in the Indian imperial successor states of this era, it had taken on a greater significance, meaning something more like prime minister.
[251] District (tahsil) tax collectors.
[252] Traditional English spelling of the city nowadays more commonly named as Thiruvananthapuram.
[253] Third son of Godefroy Charles Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, the 6th Duke of Bouillon. As the Duke died in the early stages of the Revolution and the Revolutionaries have killed his two elder sons, Henri is now the Duke, although neither he nor anyone else nearby knows this. He went east to seek his fortune after his father squandered a large part of the ancestral Bouillon fortune on entertainments for his mistress, thus following a similar career path to Britain’s John Pitt.
[254] A term used by some in TTL to mean ‘the Americas’ to avoid the problem of ‘American’ being used as the demonym specifically of the ENA. It derives from ‘New World’ in Latin.
[255] Under the initial Meridian constitution, the President-General is elected by the Cortes Nacionales, whose members were in turn elected by local constituencies. The suffrage is relatively broad for the time, about the same as in the Empire of North America – the most important rebel issue was that Criollos would have the same rights as Peninsulares, with the old limpieza table abolished. However, even wealthy blacks and full-blooded Indians tend to be denied the vote by default, at least at the moment, though this is not actually enshrined in law. For mixed-race people it typically depends on their exact circumstances, the province they live in and how big a bribe they can afford.
[256] OTL, Riquelme’s daughter Isabella gave birth to Ambrosio O’Higgins’ illegitimate son Bernardo, but in TTL they have never met, as Ambrosio O’Higgins did not take quite the same path in the Spanish Imperial Service.
[257] OTL Andrés was a compiler of European literature who settled in Naples after the Jesuits were expelled from Spain. TTL, he is more interested in collecting native American Indian mythology and folk tales, and moved to the UPSA instead, eventually going into politics.
[258] A note on religion in the UPSA. The UPSA is avowedly Catholic, but the Papacy is in the pocket of Spain and thus the Pope refuses to appoint or recognise the local bishops. For that reason, the UPSA has developed a de facto national catholic church not unlike Henry VIII’s Anglo-Catholic regime in sixteenth-century England, which recognises the Pope’s authority in theory but then ignores him in practice. Jansenism has a significant and growing following in Meridian religious thinking.
[259] His father picked the same name for his son, but this is not OTL’s Bernardo O’Higgins. TTL’s version was born by a legitimate marriage to a Peninsulare lady of Caracas.
[260] A British historian would probably call these the Second and Third Wars of Supremacy. Recall that the War of the Diplomatic Revolution is the alternate (curtailed) Seven Years’ War.
[261] Recall that he never becomes the Marquis of Pombal in TTL.
[262] Ten years earlier than OTL; as he died of the aftereffects of a wound from an old, failed assassination attempt, he could have died at any time from the stress of the earthquake, the rebuilding efforts and the Távora plot.
[263] Such as ejecting the Jesuits from Portugal and abolishing slavery in Portuguese India. OTL, ten years later, Maria just put Carvalho (Pombal) under house arrest; TTL she’s younger and more inexperienced, with different advisors, and sends him further away.
[264] TTL the Spanish never created a Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, one reason why the people in the region are so resentful, and it’s all still part of the Viceroyalty of Peru up until the Second Platinean War.
[265] Maria was known as Maria the Mad in OTL and suffered the same syndrome some years later, in 1799. Some historians claim it was porphyria instead.
[266] Maria’s children are different to OTL. The eldest, born in 1761, is Prince Peter (Pedro).
[267] Of course the in-timeline author cannot note this, but Jaime de Melo el Castro’s enlightened policies also help dampen independence sentiment in Brazil at the time, although this is already different to OTL due to the fact that the great independence of the 1780s happened right next door, in Rio de la Plata, rather than
up in North America – i.e. both the good and bad parts of the revolution are on display to the Brazilian people, rather than just rumours and propaganda. There had already been numerous rebellions in Brazil, but they were typically focused only on a particular region rather than seeking to unite all the Portuguese colonial outposts that gradually became one country.
[268] The Scindias ruled Gwalior and Ujjain, while the Holkars ruled Indore and Malwa. The other Maratha states have their own ruling dynasties.
[269] Recall that the Zands call their Shahs ‘Advocate of the People’ instead.
[270] This is not the same Hyojang as OTL, once again just a shared name. OTL’s Hyojang was King Yeongjo’s firstborn son, who died young in 1728 – and also in TTL, because this is too early for ‘butterflies’. This Hyojang is Yeongjo’s third son, named in honour of the first. The second son, Prince Sado, was disqualified and forced to commit suicide due to being a mentally unstable murderer (in both OTL and TTL).
[271] The Silhak Movement also existed in OTL.
[272] On the site of OTL Sydney.
[273] This is the site of OTL Melbourne, in OTL not founded until many years later. Béron is a French version of Birrarung, which is the OTL English transliteration of the name for the place by the native Wurundjeri tribe (spelled Ouarandjeré by the French here).
[274] The Aborigines were called Indians for a while by the British colonists in OTL as well.
[275] His name for the whole fertile south coast of Australia. Essentially New South Wales.
[276] The Ngāti Raukawa in English transliteration.
[277] Waka in English transliteration. It literally means ‘canoe’, reflecting the fact that the Maori confederacies basically originated as cooperative ventures to colonise new lands via canoe.
[278] Te Tai-tokerau in English transliteration; the Northland region of New Zealand.
[279] Ngāti Tūwharetoa and Ngai Tuhoe respectively in English transliteration.
[280] Taranaki in English transliteration.
[281] This was a name given to North Island by the French in OTL; its provenance is unclear, as is that cited for the South Island later.
[282] Kāi Tahu.
[283] No, not that one, although it is an irony. This is John Cooke, or his analogue, who in OTL was killed at Trafalgar.
[284] Environmental breeding = natural selection.
[285] The sea shanty The Drunken Sailor dates from long after the POD, and this version is not quite the same, but it’s not unlikely that a similar one would develop. The same factors were there – the original, Irish tune, brought there by Irish sailors, and the suitability of the rhythm to the task of hoisting sails or yanking on ropes.
[286] Third son of the Duke of Grafton, the Lord Deputy for North America. ITTL he went into the Marines rather than the regular British Army partly because his American childhood friends regaled him with stories of the heroic Lawrence Washington (later Lord Fredericksburg) during the Second War of Supremacy.
[287] An ATL ‘brother’ of OTL’s Friedrich Schiller, more of a political figure than OTL.
[288] OTL he fought in the American Revolutionary War.
[289] Unlike OTL, Pedro Pablo Alcántara Abarca de Bolea had a son.
[290] Named after an earlier French attempt at a steamboat by Claude de Jouffroy. Jouffroy himself was imprisoned during Robespierre’s tenure, but was then released by Lisieux and at this time is working with Cugnot in Toulon.
[291] A similar (but less violent) incident happened in OTL in 1837 to a steamship built by Francis Pettit Smith, who therefore accidentally discovered a superior form of propeller. By happening so early in TTL, this short-circuits some developments in propulsion technology and ensures—for better or for worse—that paddlewheels die out early on.
[292] In TTL neither his father nor he became Viceroy of New Spain, and his career has mainly focused on European conflicts, except a brief foray into Peru during the Second Platinean War.
[293] ‘Imperial’ in this sense has a similar meaning to ‘federal’ in the OTL USA, i.e. a national organisation defined and controlled by the central government. The counterpart is ‘Confederal’, referring to issues controlled by the governments of the Five Confederations.
[294] Illegal transporters = people who smuggle transported British convicts into the Empire, which has been illegal since the 1780s. Paid for by corrupt British justices of the peace who pocket the money from the Crown set aside for paying for the convicts’ official transport to one of the authorised penal colonies.
[295] OTL this class, or its close analogue, was named for the Enterprize herself. Butterflies have resulted in the names reshuffling. Rifleman here is a reference to the Americans’ famed skill with the rifled musket.
[296] In OTL this was later renamed the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. It was established in 1767 in both timelines.
[297] Though not in OTL.
[298] The former Louisbourg. In TTL there is no Halifax yet, as the French abandoned any attempt to put bases in Nova Scotia (New Scotland) as the Americans have put more effort into holding and colonising it relative to OTL. A town named Bolingbroke will be founded near the site of OTL Halifax later on.
[299] Increased Russian government interest in the country’s far eastern possessions in general, due to the activities of Lebedev and Benyovsky, means that the small Alyeskan (Alaskan) outposts are considerably larger and more developed by this point than OTL.
[300] TTL’s name for Vancouver Island. Note that the Noochanoolth are only one of several tribes there, but they were the first one to be met by Europeans (in this case Goodman) and so the whole place gets named for them.
[301] Gavaji and Gavajski are the terms equivalent to Hawaii and Hawaiian in TTL, for reasons which will become clear. Note than in OTL at this point the islands were often known as the Sandwich Islands, but this was a name given to them by Captain Cook, who did not live to make his voyages of discovery in TTL.
[302] Recall in TTL that the British attempt to set up a single Cherokee Emperor and unify the tribes (in order to use them more effectively against the French and Spanish, and so treaties signed with a single leader are honoured) has been markedly more successful, due to colonial governments not changing policy so often. However, this is rather more London’s definition of success than Charleston’s, as the Carolinians at this time would have preferred a more disunited group of Indians that they could easily push aside in order to settle their lands. As it is, the fact that the Cherokee are much more united in TTL gives even the most fiery filibusterer pause—though the Carolinians had already obtained much of the Cherokee’s traditional lands, the new native Empire has taken over many more from other tribes conquered as a result of their participation in the Anglo-Spanish wars.
[303] OTL Pepperrell did not marry or have any children. That he did in TTL can be considered a butterfly of Prince Frederick’s activities in America upsetting the OTL political and economic tides.
[304] Called ‘Pepperrell’s Regiment’, this existed in OTL in the Seven Years’ War; here it has been formed a little earlier. Like the other American regiment, Shirley’s 50th, in OTL it lost many men in the Seven Years’ War and was disbanded afterwards, somewhat upsetting the Americans. In TTL the prestige of homegrown regiments is such (and with a shorter war) that the two regiments survived, but are eventually renamed after the regions in which they were raised (Massachussetts and New Hampshire) in line with the county system used in the rest of the British Army.
[305] This pub can still be visited, though today it is known as the Eagle. It opened as the Eagle and Child in 1667.
[306] An ancestor of the OTL American Bush political dynasty, who in TTL joined the army raised by Frederick to prosecute his return to Britain.
[307] In OTL Pepperrell’s Regiment had mostly been killed or captured by the French in a separate battle at this point; in TTL, of course, the pattern of warfare is somewhat shifted.
[308] The regiment was not officially
linked to the West Riding until the 1780s, but the writer is being a little anachronistic. In any case, the 33rd recruited mainly from the region long before this was officially recognised.
[309] In OTL it was simply called the St. Leger; they wanted to name it after Rockingham, but he refused, saying that although he had funded it, it was St. Leger’s idea. In TTL Rockingham is still Prime Minister at this point (in OTL he was in opposition) so not calling it after him is not really an option, prestige-wise.
[310] In the OTL Napoleonic Wars, there was a similar facility built at Weedon in Northamptonshire. The more northerly location essentially reflects the paranoia of British parliamentarians about the unknown capabilities of French wonder weapons and whether they could overrun the South of England faster than they think. Well, that and the title of this interlude.
Table of Contents
Chapter #1: The Coronation of the Hun
Chapter #2: A Town Fit For A King
Chapter #3: A Cornish Nasty for German George
Chapter #4: The “Yes, but we’ve changed our minds now” War
Chapter #5: How I Killed My Brother
Chapter #6: The Second Glorious Revolution
Chapter #7: And They Call It Peace
Chapter #8: To Add Something More To This Wonderful Year
Chapter #9: Sowing The Seeds
Chapter #10: Pole to Pole (and Lithuanian)
Chapter #11: Don’t Tread On Me
Chapter #12: Southern Sunrise
Part 13: Before the Storm
Chapter #14: A Man, a Plan, a Han— Japan!
Chapter #15: Two Great Men
Chapter #16: The Last Roundup
Chapter #17: Beaucoup de bruit et de chaleur, et qui ne signifie rien
Chapter #18: The Betrayal of the Revolution
Chapter #19: Choke Point
Chapter 20: Cette obscurité glorieuse
Chapter 21: L’Étrangerie
Chapter 22: The Making of a Legend
Chapter 23: History Repeats Itself
Chapter 24: A Revolutionary War
Chapter 25: The Baltic Crisis
