United Provinces of Buenaventura

-independence from Spain

1868 def. José Vidaurri (Anti-Confederationist)

1874 def. Manuel de la Peña (Anti-Confederationist), William Muir (Protectionist)

1880 def. William Muir (Protectionist)

-as effective political leader in SF, leads anti-autocratic activity

-opposes Masonic independentist activities, on the basis of their perceived Protestant supremacism, and steers clear of filibuster attempt from the United States of America

-nevertheless is deeply involved in independentist activity and is briefly imprisoned in 1857-8

-corralling his imprisonment into martyrdom, he leads the independence movement afterwards (with much of its Protestant leadership weakened), including the Cry of Loma Alta calling for a General Junta

-at the General Junta, he advocates the deposition of the Internal Provinces government and its replacement with another, and when it deals with more moderate action, he declares if the petition for autonomy is refused the Junta meet for immediate action

-when petition refused, he then successfully organizes delegates to return in 1864 and issue Declaration of Independence of Buenaventura

-provokes Buenaventura's Wars > Buenaventuran War of Independence (1864-7)

-makes return to SF with the new declaration, helps lead uprising that takes the city, pushes towards presidio

-as political general, he directs troop movements down seaboard

-but after a few months, Spanish fleet comes in, quickly takes the city, and pledging to return, Broderick retreats to Encinal [Oakland]and after being beaten there due to the navy, flees to Sacramento where he establishes a camp and successfully defends the San Joaquin Valley from Spanish forces

-maintains leadership of California Provincial Junta through various corrupt but ultimately successful means

-his delegates in the General Junta in El Paso (Comunero-controlled) successfully push for sending feelers to the Spanish, who are facing many more rebellions in their empire

-successfully they bring Spain to the peace table (Spain has more critical rebellions, chiefly one in Mexico), and the Treaty of Lille recognizes Buenaventuran independence

-new Constitution of the United Provinces of Buenaventura establishes a directorial form of government, with Executive Councillors directly elected by open-list PR for six years

-also very centralized constitution, with the General Cortes (with a Senate and a Junta) able to veto all provincial laws

-establishes a sort of regional directorial system in order to establish both centralized and regional system

-establishes powerful political machine which rules SF handily

-Broderick's skills, him being Irish (thus Anglo) and a Catholic who can speak Spanish makes him unifier, and he gets the nomination from the North California Provincial Junta thus he gets elected

-warfare with Comanche (increased due to disarray of Revolution) leads him to constitute the Frontier Guard to defend against the threat, includes many of the Five Civilized Tribes due to their long-lasting hatred of them

-does establish a Territory of Comancheria from northern Texas

-fearing the east will secede, he pumps money that way and speaks of the threat of the Spanish and promotes local leadership

-does, however, face rebellion in eastern Buenaventura led by successful revolutionary general sidelined by Brodericistas

-in the end, is able to establish a loyal party and prevent secessionist attempts

-begins construction of railroad from SF to El Paso and then to mainland just off Galveston, sees it get constructed

-he makes sure it gets constructed by the state, with little room for magnates to get their foot in

-other routes get constructed, from El Paso to San Diego

-and then to Monterrey, and from there to Tampico and Matamoros

-also he establishes a centralized authority to run a railroad system

-by the government with mostly central input and some provincial

-center of the railroad is Tucson which he declares capital of the nation

-a city named after his death Ciudad Broderick in his honor

-a delicate move to prevent appearance of impropriety of Californian domination of the nation

-with Liberty and Union War (1868-76) and division of US, Broderick sees the opportunity to open up unlimited trade

-opens up cattle routes for vaqueros to trade with both sides of the war

-gold, he sells to Constitutional Government which desperately needs it through Pacific trade to Port Townsend, reaps vast profits from it

-upon its end he does permit immigration of Richmondites unwilling to swear allegiance but deports high-ranking officers

-because he can see the seeds of a war brewing

-mining is something which he broadly continues existing laws on

-which permits essentially free mining of the vast gold and, increasingly, silver reserves by both citizens and immigrants

-also abolishes all tariffs but a small one, dividing own party between those who endorse it and those who believe tariffs would protect local industry

-this is to dramatically increase trade with world aside from the US which he views as a potentially powerful threat to Buenaventuran sovereignty

-but war trade results in widespread wealth for the country, trade of cattle and crops makes Buenaventura quite wealthy

-as do various silver rushes in the nation, creating widespread prosperity

-in the end, with the ACW coming to an end in 1876, trade suddenly slumps, and Broderick's tariff policies receive the blame

-this is because American goods flood the market at the expense of the more costly Buenaventuran goods which formerly filled the void of them

-in 1880 election, two Protectionist councillors get elected, while Broderick is able to retain his position

-that he accepts the verdict of the people is something which helps enshrine the revolution

-in the end, dies of a stroke

-widely mourned figure credited with ensuring the security of the nation

-economy continues to stutter as a result of end of US war

-and this very much crowds out Buenaventuran goods

1886 def. Antonio Bremer (Radical)

1892 def. Eugene Boxton (Radical)

-major hacendado

-from oldline New Mexican family

-got screwed by property taxes due to his opposition to Broderickism

-and as a result is forced to sell off his hacienda and puts that money towards industry

-makes him an influential local politician

-and after being a competent politician in the provincial level

-makes his way into junta and then achieves election as an oppositionist Director

-erects a series of tariffs against American business

-towards a program of import substitution

-also lowers the land value tax and commits himself to large program of land price reevaluation

-instead of state infra directly owned by the state he launches program of supporting private business

-and buying partial shares and loans to them

-another reform is establishing a state bank

-however, farmers revolt occurs against high tariff

-successful unification of these with consumers faced with higher prices

-as well as shipping interests horrified at being outcompeted

1898 def. J. Francisco Chaves (Protectionist)

1904 def.

1910 def. Bernardo Reyes (Protectionist), Henry W. D. Creel (Association of Workers and Peasants)

-with the migration of Russians fleeing the Russo-Chinese War (1893-9) they bring cattle

-a lot of it infected with rinderpest

-from SF the rinderpest spreads across the country, devastating the cattle industry

-Boxton fights against this through culling, and through industrial investment

-as well as through mining

-and notably maintaining a degree of tariffs to build up industry

-1906 SF earthquake decapitates Buenaventura's economy entirely with huge and massive waves across the nation

-recovery bringing immediate aid, rapid reconstruction

-however, industry that got swallowed up by the crash is largely replaced by an increased dependence on mining and increasingly oil

-thus though economy does recover it's a really shitty recovery and long term results in dependence on resource extraction and grows the emergence of the resource curse

-and of what industry does pop up, a lot of it is American branch plants

-then comes the Recessions > Panic of 1911

-sluggish reaction to it

-foreign money formerly being pumped into mining and oil suddenly leaves

-as do American branch plants

-financial technocrat who was anointed to fix financial problems from earthquake

-made general director to reassure a panicked public

-economy continues to suffer brutally

-despite Gastélum making sluggish attempts to pump money and increase liquidity

-and to increase public spending

-this is scandalous take because Australia has just suffered a debt default to the horror of just about everyone

-and it's feared this will kick off something similar

-the World Expo > 1915 Resurgence Exposition (San Francisco) is a bright spot

-but many view it as a scam and waste of money

-still, in hindsight viewed mostly positively

1916 def. Enrique F. Gastélum (Radical), Bernardo Reyes (Protectionist)

1922 def. Enrique F. Gastélum (Constitutionalist Alliance), (True Association)

-wins on basis of strange conflux of mining interests and unemployed urban workers

-commits campaign of nationalization

-devoted to the purpose of building up industry

-with elective councils running the nationalized industries as co-ops - as per ideology of labor republicanism

-workers paid through scrip, redeemable to other co-op businesses within system which creates what opposition calls an internal economy

-scrip is declared convertible with peso eventually once enough silver mined, though businesses pop up to convert it with silver

-economy makes decent improvement

-although this is a dead cat bounce and opposition says so

-also hampered by reluctance of Associationists to run deficits, fearing Australia-style debt default destroying its sovereignty

-does lose huge groundswell of support and decreases directorial majority from unanimous to bare majority

-due to balanced budgets resulting in curbed spending primarily

-as well as a split among the Associationists

-inaugurates settlement initiative in Comancheria to a very high degree

-with directorial byelection it loses its majority

1925: Placed by majority of the Executive Council

1928 def. Henry W. D. Bridges (Association of Workers and Peasants)

-Constitutionalist Party is union of Radicals and Protectionists

-against radical socialism

-social-minded man and reformist factory and hacienda owner

-who gets big because he is quite effective in that role

-spins off cooperativized industries

-from government

-and implicitly requires them to make enough money

-but steers away from going after cooperativized scrip because it would cause a financial crash yet again

-invites foreign business interests back into the country

-in competition with cooperativized industries

-uses this foreign money to finance the development of local businesses

-intentionally finances

-this is now viable because global economy is now well in recovery

-but at the same time, does ensure there is workerist legislation

-in order to ensure worker security

-while also rolling back super-radical strike legislation

-economy steadily improves

-however, he's then faced with the Polvamiento

-the sudden dust blizzards cause settlement in Comancheria to collapse

-this causes intense hate from the United States because dust clouds flow towards it

-and in turn it causes extreme financial panic

-and eventually Madero decides to retire

-because he does not like politics very much

-steps back to a lesser directory and shuffles the cabinet

-Director of the Treasury

-anointed to a higher position

-messes up because he's associated with somewhat shitty economic position of the nation

-and lacks Madero's affability or his reputation for honesty

1934 def.

1940 def.

-comes from an oldline San Franciscan family

-which immigrated from Chile

-good answer to oft-criticized Anglo tint of Associationists

1946 def.

-pretty crazy sex scandal

-leads to him resigning, in directorial byelection Constitutionalists win but Associationists retain directorial majority

1952 def.

-entrenches Anglo-Hispano bilingualism in the entire country

-establishes directorial system as many suspicious of presidentialism, and is an extension of rebel system and many fear otherwise will benefit anglos or hispanos

-carves out a few provinces

-Northern and Southern California, which effectively had separate revolutions centred around diff cities, are separated

-the nothern interior is made Yuta, a vast province spanning (what is then) territory with few whites

-New Mexico, with most of OTL New Mexico and also a large swathe of Texas

-successful because he is effective politician, and because as an Anglo Catholic he straddles the line between the two linguistic groups