This page covers differences and changes from OTL and ATL in the timeline ¡Viva la Pepa!
Geopolitics[]
- When the constitutional and liberal government of Spain (including Portugal and both countries' colonies) take over, a liberal coalition is formed by Spain and Great Britain against the conservative influence of the Holy Alliance of Austria, Russia and Prussia. These liberal nations also create a commercial net in the Atlantic Sea and the Caribbean.
- During the Revolutions of 1830, Spain and Great Britain help the liberal government of Louis-Phillipe I and his July Monarchy to take over in France. He joins the liberal coalition and deports Ferdinand VII to Spain, where he is executed.
- Due to the Spanish presence in the continent, Bolívar achieves to impose a constitution of his design and become the first President for life. At his death without a successor, due to the death of Antonio José de Sucre some months before, the Federal War begins between centralists and federalists.
- The liberal coalition supports the Belgian revolutions. Peter II of Spain (OTL Peter I of Brazil and IV of Portugal) manages to get his son-in-law, Auguste de Beauharnais, to the Belgian throne.
- Civil disarray and fights flourish in the only former colonies that remain independent: Mexico, Central America and Colombia. Central America is the only one which has good relationships with Spain, such so that, when centralist take over, they ask for Spanish help against federalist and foreign menaces. The Central American provinces become a Spanish protectorate, except for Belize, which becomes a British-Spanish protectorate.
- In the revolutions and wars of Italy, Charles Albert of Sardinia and Charles II of Parma align with the liberals Alliance of Four (Belgium, France, Great Britain and Spain). Charles manages to get the thrones of Modena and Lucca after their conservatives monarchs are overthrown. The Papacy also becomes liberal-aligned after Louis-Phillipe unveils a Carbonari plot against the spiritual rule in Rome.
- After the death of Peter II, a succession war begins between his daughter, Mary, supported by the Alliance of Four, mainly by his husband Augustus I of Belgium; against the Holy Alliance-supported Carlos María Isidoro de Borbón (like OTL Carlist Wars) and Miguel of Braganza (OTL Miguel I of Portugal). The war begins in 1834 and ends in 1841. Mary proves to be far more liberal than his father and installs a federative constitution to give autonomy to the provinces, as a way to thank the federalist liberals who supported her in the war, and creates a parliamentary monarchy just like Great Britain's.
- In 1844 and 1845, several states rebel from Mexico (as did OTL Yucatan, Rio Grande, California, Tabasco and Texas, but all at the same time). The Spaniards and their allies support the warlord Antonio López de Santa Anna and convince the different states to join the liberal and federal Spanish Monarchy.
- The only state that does not join Spain is Texas, which joins the United States. The US denies to renounce the annexation of Texas and handle its territories to Spain, so the Alliance of Four invades the country. President David R. Atchinson signs peace in 1849, with half the US' territory lost to the allies, and the southern states forced to accept the abolition of slavery, as slaves and Indians helped the Alliance during the war. Finally Atchinson is overthrown by generals who think he represents a danger for the Union. Belgium, France, Great Britain and Spain become the "Protecting Powers" of the United States of America, with prerogative to amend the constitution and holding the Executive Power. Their first amendments to the Constitution are known as the Bill of Protection.
The partition of the United States. France in blue, Great Britain in red, Spain in gold.
States of the US in pink, condominia controlled by the Protecting Powers
but incorporated to the US in green.
- During the March Revolution in Germany, Great Britain takes advantage of Prussia's weakness due to the conflict between liberals, conservatives, republicans and monarchists to propose Ernest Augustus I of Hannover as Emperor of the unified Germany. The rest of the monarchs, be they liberal or conservatives, also want the position, all except Austria, which withdraws from the Confederation. Even the kleinstaaterei (lesser states) want the right to elect a representative in the executive body. Finally the Frankfort Parliament rewrites the constitution to create an executive Directory of all monarchs of the major states and one representative elected by the kleinstaaterei princes. The ideological gap between the German-nationalistic German Empire which Prussia is part of and the pluri-nationalist and cosmopolitan Austria (which later joins Hungary) becomes irreconsilable.
- The Italians wars of liberation on the Austrian possessions in Lombardy and Venetia occur, and it's led by Charles of Parma, Lucca and Modena and Charles Albert of Sardinia. Leopold II of Tuscany is overthrown and exiled for a short period of time, after which he returns to the throne thanks to the Pope's help. His Habsburg cousins in Austria didn't help him during the exile so he joins the liberals (he was always liberal, even in OTL, an popular too, but too loyal to his Habsburg family) in the war against Austria. Two-Sicilian revolutionaries depose Ferdinand II, and the hispanophile princes manage to give the two-Sicilian throne to Peter of Alcantara (OTL Peter II of Brazil), brother of Mary I of Spain, a liberal and a veteran of the intervention of the United States. The remaining italian states join into a confederacy presided over by the Pope, with an executive directory two (more representative than the german one, as every state had a vote, though less egalitarian, as Charles had three votes, one for each principality he had, and Peter had two, one for Naples and one for Sicilia, while the Pope was the only one who could be president of the directory).
- With new governments (a liberal-nationalist one in Prussia and a liberal-cosmopolitan one in Austria) the Holy Alliance breaks and the only conservative state remaining is Russia. Thanks to investments on the colonies (like Congo and Alaska) Russia manages to come out from recession and gain strength. It is in a better economical situation than OTL, but still a very conservative Ancien Régime state.
- The July Monarchy is not overthrown in the 1848's revolutionary circle. But when Louis-Philippe I dies, his son, Louis-Phillipe II, proves to be far more conservative, and there is a growing discontent among the working class, as there's still census suffrage in favor of the wealthier class and the landowners. In this hard epoch, full of protests, Napoleon Louis (OTL Napoleon III) returns from Africa, where he's being campaigning in the colonial wars, and begins to preach himself as a good candidate for the throne, stating that he would have himself elected like his uncle did. A huge riot forces Louis-Phillipe II to abandon Paris, and the nation is about to enter in civil war. The legislature resolves that an Electoral College should appoint the next King of the French (or confirm Louis-Phillipe II's appointment). The Bourbonist vote is divided in many pretenders, and a slight republican side (including communist, socialists and anarchists), and Napoleon obtains an overwhelming majority. The alliance between France and the coalition of Belgium, Great Britain and Spain breaks. Still, France conserves its privileges from previous treaties, just like being a Protecting Power of the United States and other international concessions and condominia. France becomes one of the first states of the liberal bloc to avoid universal suffrage for males over 18 years.
Map of Europe in 1852, at the death of Mary I of Spain.