by Tom Anderson
The rules of cricket are codified by the Pall Mall Cricket Club.
Part 5: The Age of Revolution (1779-1799)
1779-1785: The Second Platinean War. Spain and (theoretically) France vs. Peruvian Indian rebels, Platinean and Chilean colonial rebels, Britain and America, and (unofficially) Portugal. Defeat of the Bourbons with the creation of what will become the UPSA, although Britain suffers some embarrassing naval defeats in the process.
1779:
José Gabriel Condorcanqui, taking the name Tupac Amaru II as Sapa Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo people, shoots the tyrannical Spanish Governor of Peru, Antonio de Arriaga, and begins the Great Andean Rebellion. The rest of the year sees an unsuccessful attempt by the colonial authorities to quell the revolt.
First deployment of the Ferguson breech-loading rifle by the British Army. Initially the rifle is not widely adopted due to its high cost and long production time, although it sees some use by frontier forces in the ENA. Breech-loaders will not be popularised until the 1820s. At the same time, the Austrian army first deploys the Repetierwindbüchse (repeating air rifle) designed by Bartholomäus Girandoni, which though not suitable for general adoption, sees considerable use by skirmishers.
1780:
Linnaeus’ Taxonomy of Man is published posthumously, in which he argues that man is simply another of the primates. The book causes an uproar, but its impact on natural history and theology is somewhat overshadowed by the fact that the chapters dealing with the different races of men become the kernel of the ideology of Linnaean Racism.
The American Squadron is created by the Royal Navy, a kernel of the later Imperial Navy.
On Christmas Day, Tupac Amaru II takes Cusco from the Spanish colonial authorities and has himself formally coronated.
1781:
February - Forces of the Viceroyalty of Peru fail to retake Cusco from Tupac Amaru II’s rebelling Indians.
May - In Upper Peru (OTL Bolivia) Tomas Katari, another Indian rebel leader, is defeated before La Paz and, pursued by Spanish regulars, retreats into Lower Peru. He combines his forces with Tupac Amaru II’s, strengthening them.
June - In India, after many failed rebellions against the Durrani Afghans, the Sikhs finally win their independence.
August - In Lithuania, Grand Duke Povilas (the future Emperor Paul of Russia) institutes a new shipbuilding programme, known as the Patriotic Fleet as it embodies the idea of a Lithuania which has its own independent forces and is not merely a vassal of Russia.
1782:
January - Carl Wilhelm Scheele publishes, in Swedish, his work on gases. Because of Linnaeus’ controversies resulting in many leading European thinkers learning Swedish to read his work in the original, Scheele’s discoveries become more widely known.
March - King Louis XVI launches a French expedition to South America, although at the time of launch, it is still unclear which side he is supporting in the war there. The expedition is led by Admiral de Grasse and the Duc de Noailles.
April - The Africa Bubble scandal results in the resignation of the Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister of Great Britain. He is replaced by the Duke of Portland, but real power rests in the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Edmund Burke. The ruling Patriot party shifts its ideological positioning slightly and becomes known as the Liberal Whigs.
May - Birth of Philip Hamilton (son of Alexander Hamilton) in New York City.
August – The Duc de Noailles’ expedition reaches the Plate. The Spanish have told their colonists that the French are their allies, while the French believe that they are there to attack the Spaniards in their moment of weakness, due to figurative crossed wires at the French foreign ministry. The result is a bloody occupation of undefended Buenos Aires by Noailles’ army, with the Platineans bitterly blaming the Spanish for the incident. This is amplified by Spanish propaganda praising (invented) victories by the French against Tupac Amaru II.
1783:
January - Beginning of the Southern Rebellion, as the Rio de la Plata and Chile both rise in revolt against the Spanish. The Platineans begin building up their old militias again around cadres of veterans of the First Platinean War, and attack the French - initially without much success, as Noailles’ forces are numerous and well-equipped.
February - Britain and the ENA enter the war in support of the Platinean rebels, hoping for expanded trade rights with any postwar independent state.
March - Tupac Amaru II takes Lima from the Spanish, but has trouble holding the strongly pro-Spanish city down.
April - Midshipman Leo Bone passes his lieutenantcy examination in Gibraltar. The new lieutenant is reassigned to HMS Raisonnable, where he first meets Lieutenant Horatio Nelson.
May - Maximilian III Wittelsbach, Elector of Bavaria, dies without issue. The electorate passes to Charles Theodore Sulzbach, Elector Palatine. Charles Theodore concludes a deal with the Austrians to swap Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands, which now become the Duchy of Flanders. Bavaria is integrated into Austria (not very popular with the Bavarians) while Charles Theodore retains the Palatinate as well as Flanders. Although the Prussians would like to declare war over this (as in OTL), they are too busy trying to hold down the latest Polish rebellion to respond.
July - Anglo-American fleet under Admiral Howe defeats de Grasse at the Battle of the River Plate. The British fleet lands an army of mostly American troops led by General George Augustine Washington, who joins up with the Platinean rebels in order to attack the French in Buenos Aires.
August – Prince Henry of Prussia, uncle to King Frederick William II, is killed by Polish partisans in an ambush during the ongoing Polish rebellion. The loss of Henry as a valuable advisor is a blow to the King, who adopts savage retributions against the Poles which only poisons internal relations further.
September - Franco-Spanish fleet assembles at Cadiz to escort fresh troops to South America. The fleet is ambushed by Admiral Augustus Keppel in the Battle of Trafalgar, which is a shock defeat for the Royal Navy. Keppel is court-martialled and resigns in disgrace. However, the RN has destroyed enough French and Spanish troopships that the expedition is called off.
1784-1786: Third Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Due to poor communications between the BEIC and Haidarabad, the Mysoreans win a significant victory with blatant French help. The Nizam ejects the French from the Northern Circars in response and puts the British in charge there. The BEIC fights off the French and the British-Haidarabad alliance is subsequently strengthened.
1784:
March - Having caught wind of reports that the Franco-Spanish intend to occupy Malta, the Royal Navy quickly makes its move first and turn the island into what will become an important British naval base. Controversy is sparked throughout Europe at this preemptive strike, even though the British allow the Knights of St John to carry on in a ceremonial role.
April - The Spanish retake Lima from Tupac Amaru II.
Prince Lee Boe of Palau visits the Netherlands and is an instant celebrity, leading to renewed European interest in the South Sea islanders.
May - Disintegration of Franco-Spanish common policy as Louis XV attempts to use the Royal Navy’s defeats as an opportunity to invade England. The French armies have still not assembled by the end of the war.
The Hanoverian-British composer and astronomer William Herschel dies while taking part on an astronomical mission in the South Seas.
June - Start of the Canadian Rebellion (by Québecois) against Britain and America.
The rebels in Rio de la Plata announce the abolition of slavery.
July - A French fleet commanded by the Comte d’Estaing, Jean-Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, defeats the British in a dramatic but strategically largely meaningless victory at the naval Battle of Bermuda.
August - Anglo-American siege of New Orleans defeated by the colonial French.
1785:
February - Anglo-American-Platinean-Chil
ean combined forces take La Paz from the Spanish.
March - In Britain, Shrapnel and Philips develop the hail shot (known as case shot in OTL), a potent anti-infantry weapon that remains a British military secret for a generation.
Birth of Thorvald Nielsen, a legendary adventurer, in Trondheim.
May - After a complicated amphibious invasion from Florida, American (mainly Carolinian) troops take Havana in Cuba.
Michael Hiedler, third son of a Bavarian printer, moves to Lower Austria in order to seek his fortune by enlisting in the Austrian army.
July - Canadian Rebellion crushed by British and New England troops. This revolt will result in Britain ceasing its policy of appeasing Québecois interests, instead giving a green light to the New Englanders to settle the land. Many Québecois are forcibly ejected, or choose to leave, and eventually go to Louisiana, where they become known as Canajuns.
August - The Treaty of London is signed, ending the Second Platinean War. The settlement represents a severe defeat for Spain, which is forced to concede the independence of what will become the UPSA with the loss of a third of its colonial empire. The ENA retains Cuba, although its exact status remains up in the air for the moment. France loses little on paper, just the largely unpopulated hinterland of Louisiana, but has drained its treasury, and this will have severe consequences…
September - King Charles III of Spain is forced once again to flee to France as the mob rules the streets of Madrid. Bernardo Tanucci is killed in the violence. When Charles returns, with the help of French troops, he is forced to appoint the liberal reformer José Moñino y Redondo, conde de Floridablanca, as chief minister.
October - British chemist Joseph Priestley publishes On the Nature of Phlogiston, in which he attempts to reconcile the established phlogiston-based theory of combustion with Scheele’s discovery of elluftium [oxygen].
November - Admiral Jean-François de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse sets out on a voyage of discovery financed by the King of France. The voyage included La Pérouse’s new flagship, D’Estaing, followed by four frigates and a supply ship.
1786 March - John Pitt achieves a Colonelcy in the BEIC army.
May - Death of King Peter III of Portugal in a hunting ‘accident’. He is shot down in front of Queen Maria, who is driven mad by the experience. Within a year, power passes to her son, who becomes Peter IV.
June - An attempt by the French East India Company to conquer the town of Masoolipatam, in the Northern Circars, is defeated by the British East India Company and Haidarabad. John Pitt fights heroically at the battle, is wounded, and achieves fame and fortune.
July - Death of King Uthumphon of Ayutthaya. He is succeeded by his son, Maha Ekatotaphak, who places much power in the hands of his minister Prachai Tangsopon (possibly his bastard half-brother). Prachai tames rebellious nobles, establishes the Kongthap Bok (Royal Army) and establishes more state control over trade.
August - Lieutenant Leo Bone is promoted to Master and Commander, and is given the almost obsolete 28-gun frigate Coventry. He is soon marked out as a man to watch by the Royal Navy as he transforms the ship and its crew into a lethal fighting machine with a mixture of discipline, charisma, and unorthodox tactical ideas.
December - La Pérouse’s fleet reaches Easter Island and the Galapagos. Lamarck and Laplace, who accompanied the voyage, observe the wildlife of the Galapagos, eventually resulting in their landmark book for Linnaeanism, Observations on the Fauna of the Iles Galapagos.
1787:
Death of King Christian VII of Denmark. He is succeeded by his son, who becomes King Johannes II.
Discovery of the habitable regions of Antipodea by La Pérouse, who names the land New Gascony.
Death of the Daguo Emperor of China. He is succeeded by his third son Yongli, who becomes the Guangzhong Emperor.
1788:
March - George III returns to North America.
June - King Peter IV of Portugal appoints Jaime de Melo el Castro as Viceroy of Brazil. Melo becomes a reforming viceroy and is responsible for effectively creating a unitary Brazilian colonial entity, Brazil formerly having been a loose arrangement of separate colonies.
July - King George III, in his capacity as Emperor George I of North America, opens the first Continental Parliament.
August - Lithuanian Patriotic Fleet, carrying ambassador Moritz Benyovsky, visits the Empire of North America as part of its flying-the-flag world tour.
1789-1791: Fourth Mysore-Haidarabad War between Mysorean and FEIC forces on one side and Haidarabad and BEIC forces on the other. Both sides fight hard and competently in the last of the Mysore-Haidarabad Wars. In the end, Tippoo Sultan of Mysore emerges with a victory, having taken Carnool and Guntoor from Haidarabad.
1789:
March - The British Admiralty grants American shipyards the right to build ships of war for the Royal Navy.
April - Charles Darwin (not that one) discovers light-sensitive silver salts, the beginning of the science of asimcony (photography).
May - Under pressure from the French and Spanish, Pope Gregory XV issues the papal bull Discidium which condemns the separation of the UPSA from Spain. This drives many Meridians towards Jansenist Catholicism, as any Catholic clergyman in the UPSA who rejects the bull is effectively considered a Jansenist by default.
June - The Great Famine strikes France. A failure by the King’s government to respond coherently, coupled with the fact that the nobles continue to eat well, stokes the resentment of the French people towards the ancien régime.
July - In Portugal, a plot by the Duchess of Lafões against Peter IV is uncovered; Peter’s response is another round of executions and land confiscations, further cowing the Portuguese nobility vis-à-vis royal power.
Maverick Chinese general Yu Wangshan defeats an attempt by the exiled Burmese Konbaung dynasty, led by Avataya Min, to retake Ava from the Chinese-backed Tougou dynasty. The Guangzhong Emperor, fearing Yu’s alignment with neo-Manchu political factions, exiles him to the eastern forts of the “New Great Wall”.
The city state of Toungoo supported Avataya Min during the war, so its ruler Shin Aung is toppled by the Chinese and replaced by his more pliable (but unpopular) nephew Hkaung Shwe.
August - In North America, the Continental Parliament passes the Anti-Transportation Act, barring the forced transportation and settlement of British convicts in areas claimed by American colonies.
HMS Raisonnable, under the command of Captain Robert Brathwaite, visits Naples. Her first lieutenant, Horatio Nelson, meets Sir John Acton. Nelson is initially offended by Acton’s career of fighting for the Mediterranean powers rather than his British homeland.
October - General Assembly of New England passes a law abolishing slavery by gradual manumission.
1790:
February - Convention of Córdoba officially establishes the United Provinces of South America.
March - John Pitt becomes Governor-General of the BEIC (based in Calcutta).
Charles Town, capital of the Confederation of Carolina, is officially renamed Charleston.
April - Peter IV of Portugal revives the Cortes, using the commoners as another stick to beat the nobility into line with.
May - China under the Guangzhong Emperor begins tightening trade restrictions with Europeans in Canton, irritating the various East India Companies.
June - The Continental Parliament of North America passes a bill instituting an American Special Commissioner to be sent to Britain and Consuls to be sent to France and Spain, essentially a backdoor project for exploring the possibility of independent American ambassadors.
1791:
April - Death of Grigory Potemkin, former lover of Empress Catherine of Russia.
May - British general election returns a majority for the ruling Portland Ministry, in which real power rests in Edmund Burke. The ruling party is known as the Liberal Whigs, while Charles James Fox’s Radical Whigs also increase their vote share.
Imitating his idol th
e Kangxi Emperor, the Guangzhong Emperor of China has his wayward son and heir Baoyu stripped of his position and relegated to a lowly position in an attempt to teach him humility; however, Baoyu hangs himself, the Empress dies from a miscarriage upon hearing the news, and Guangzhong withdraws into seclusion with only two heirs, Baoli and Baoyi, left.
June - While making observations of sunspots, the Neapolitan astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi accidentally discovers paraerythric (infra-red) light. His discovery will remain controversial for years to come.
July - France is thrown into a panic due to rumours that a comet is due to strike the country.
At the height of a cursory Austro-Wallachian border war, cavalryman Michael Hiedler is slightly wounded, decorated, and given the noble title of Edler von Strones. He settles near the village of Strones, marries, and fathers two children.
August - Persecuted by an angry mob for his radical political sympathies, Joseph Priestley flees Britain for the United Provinces of South America, where he will set up a very profitable soda water business.
La Pérouse visits the Kingdom of Corea, performing a little trade with King Hyojang. This includes artillery.
September - HMS Coventry is paid off. Commander Leo Bone, taking most of his crew with him, is made post and given command of the frigate HMS Diamond.
1792:
May - A joint Russo-Lithuanian mission, commanded by Moritz Benyovsky and Pavel Lebedev-Lastoschkin, sets off for Okhotsk from the Baltic the long way around, assisted by Dutch navigators.
June - Captain Horatio Nelson, commanding HMS Habana, visits Naples for the second time. Sir John Acton is now effectively the prime minister to King Charles VI and VIII, and Nelson reaches a rapproachment with him. He also meets the King’s daughter, Princess Carlotta, for the first time. The nature of their relationship is subject to many rumours, but she begins to argue for Nelson’s interests at court.
July - British scientist Henry Cavendish, disappointed in fading interest in electricity research in his home country, goes to the UPSA to join his acquaintance Joseph Priestley.