Part 34: Nuts

Chapter 23: Nuts



Our gains bring us to around 14 million people, and here are the statistics for our population. Obviously, we've gained some more Mexicans!

Also, more than a fifth of our population are soldiers. The cause is twofold: the provinces taken from Mexico were mobilized, and prior to those gains we have been giving lots of guns and uniforms to immigrant fruit farmers.



Our navy, having nothing better to do now, pay a visit to Chesapeake Bay. Things are interesting, to say the least. The French and Spanish navies apparently have the upper hand currently, as they have been able to land troops in New York and Connecticut. The invasions are unsuccessful.



We claim another interior African territory, and we will negotiate a trade for it some time. We are currently unsure of whether we will trade it to the Germans or the British.



Election season once again! The current polls are showing the Populists in the lead, followed by the Nationalists then the Democrats. The success of this last war is largely being attributed to President Hogg himself and not the Nationalist Party, and since the very popular Jim Hogg cannot run for a consecutive term the Nationalists suffer at the polls (which I forgot to take a screenshot of)



The latest news from the Caribbean is that the US has taken Puerto Rico and more than half of Cuba.



We've been neglecting to report on our research for some time now, considering the unexciting nature of most of it. This is not unexiciting though! The concept of the Assembly Line will greatly benefit our fast growing industry.



Our victory over Mexico, our industrial expansion and our small but growing military have us now at rank 10 among nations. To be considered a Great Power we must now surpass the very industrious Japanese and the prestigious Ottomans.



The Populists win the elections. Their President, and one of the co-founders of the Populist Party, is none other than Temple Houston. An excellent lawyer, a skilled gunfighter, and one of the many sons of former President and National Hero Sam Houston, Temple Houston has been a congressman already twice and helped found the Populist Party out of disgust with the Nationalist corruption.



Had Mexico not given in when they did during this last war, we might not have fared as well. Our troop numbers were slightly over those of Mexico's, at best. And now we are trying to station men along the northern border, but there is a gap at Las Vegas and northern Arizona. For these reasons we are currently recruiting four more divisions, and we have plans to create more, in batches of four each. Our manpower is currently very high (around 250-290) so we are not worried about available men.



Our rail system was completely up to date before the war, and we are beginning to expand it into the newly gained land. Getting troops to the southern border quickly should not be a problem in the future.



We claim the area of Mali in Africa, then immediately trade it and a nearby claim to the British. Once we trade away our last territory in central Africa (likely to Germany) we will done with that continent for good.




The Boers of Transvaal have declared war on the United Kingdom, and the entire Empire and Commonwealth has responded to aid Britain, though it is doubtful she would need it. The small Boer nation of Oranje, on Transvaal's southern border, has joined in with their kin in Transvaal to fight against British aggression and encroachment.



The United States has invaded the Spanish Philippines; what interest they could have in the area is unknown to us.



Recruitment begins south of the Rio Grande for the next batch of troops.




The Boxer Movement*, who are largely anti-foreigner anti-imperialist peasants in China, have assaulted the city of Beijing, killing foreign diplomats. They've also been murdering missionaries and Chinese Christians. Some of the Western powers declare war on China in response to the Boxers taking Beijing, claiming they must do so to protect their citizens and interests in China. The European participants are Britain, Russia and Austria. Germany and Italy have given verbal support but are not willing to go to war in China. The United States and France are too busy fighting each other to care about this.

Japan, in a surprising move, has declared their intentions to honor their alliance with China and declared war on Britain, Russia and Austria.

*Historically: The participants in the actually Boxer Rebellian were the "Eight-Nation Alliance" of the UK, USA, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Italy and Japan versus the Boxers and China (they, of course, weren't allied with each other but that didn't stop us!).



The Boer nations managed to survive their war against the British Empire, getting a peace deal signed with the Brits, whose attention is now turned to China.

*Transvaal didn't survive this war historically, and Oranje was supposed to been taken many years ago.



The latest batch of troops is deployed, filling the gap in our defense that we were worried about.



The war is not going very well for China at all. The Boxers still control four provinces near Beijing, Britain has invaded from colonial Burma and Hongkong and is conducting multiple naval invasions, and the Russians are managing to push their entire border south rapidly. The Japanese do not seem to be attempting to stop the Westerners, and Austria is participating only in spirit.



President Houston announces his plan for the defense of the Republic: a line of fortifications stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific all along our border with the US. The first stage is a sequence of forts, the first being build in Austin, and they should be done within a few years.



Russia signs a treaty of alliance with Afghanistan. Russia has been signing alliances with its smaller neighbors that it wishes to remain friendly with, as opposed to the other European powers that constantly switch alliances with each other.



China is being decimated by the British and Russians. Russia has encircled Beijing, destroyed the Boxers, and are meeting up with the Brits in south central China.



Britain signs a peace with the Chinese, taking one eastern province, two provinces that bordered British Burma, and a province bordering Hong Kong.



An official from the Socialist International visits the Republic, a decade or two late considering the low polling numbers the Socialists get here these days.



We are currently researching Infiltration now, which a very powerful military technology. The study of Infiltration brings with it the concepts of "Stormtrooper" training and the possibility of a sort of motor vehicle gun.



President Houston makes his second big announcement, which pleases the ears of our capitalists. The Republic of Texas is going to be put on the Gold Standard. Temple promises that this will only strengthen our economy.

A few weeks later Austria signs a white peace with the Chinese.



Russia takes three provinces from China, ending the Boxer War. Technically Japan is still at war with the three European nations but there has been no aggression between Japan and the Europeans, and they all sign a white peace later.

*The Boxer Rebellion wasn't like this at all, and I'm curious as to why Paradox thought a war (as opposed to an event chain) would be the correct way to handle the situation. Historically, the Eight-Nation Alliance eventually made a successful landing and freed Beijing from the Boxers, after which they paraded around the city and proceeded to loot, pillage and rape (sometimes with official encouragement and permission, as was the case with Kaiser Wilhelm II telling his troops to make the Chinese fear Germans). The Alliance forced China to pay a lot of reparations up through 1939, and Russia continued to occupy much of Manchuria (leading to the Russo-Japanese War).



China escapes from the Boxer Rebellion embarrassed and missing a few large pieces of land.



The first line of forts are done, and we move to recruit four more infantry divisions. They will be deployed to Albuquerque, where there is a small gap in our defense that has been overlooked so far.



Our Navy is observing another attempt by the French to invade the US Northeast. The single division in Hartford is soon attacked and destroyed by much larger US forces.



Australia declares its independence from the United Kingdom, becoming a Dominion of the British Commonwealth.



Our savvy Californian capitalists are beginning construction on a cement factory, looking to make money from the President's fortification plans.



After Infiltration is done we begin research on bolt-action rifles, which feature a new type of loading and firing mechanism that is simpler than our outdated breech-loaded weaponry.



In a move that would have confounded Texan industrialists half a century ago, we trade economic research to the United States for an industrial technology. Historically the US has been a leader in economic research and we have been a leader in industrial technology, but recently the US fell behind in economics and we have been putting more time into army studies than before.



President Houston announces the begining of the second stage of fortifications, which is more and better forts. (level 2 fortifications are basically just "more forts".)



We have been continuing troop division recruitment, and the latest batch is deployed to Santanilla on the currently unguarded Mexican border.



After the study of Bolt-Action Rifles is done we cannot resist returning to our industrial research to study Integral Rail, the next big railroad improvement.



We are always pleased to see France lose, and that is what they are doing in our former possessions. The United States has invaded what was New Texas and has now taken more than half of it. The Americans are heading northward and will probably not stop until they've taken all of French Morocco and Algiers.



Our peace treaty with Mexico expires. We are not immediately worried. We do not intend on starting another war until the Spanish-American War is over, and Mexico should know that our military is now much better than theirs.



The last four years went by quickly, and President Houston has served a fairly uneventful term. Elections are upon us again, and all expect Jim Hogg to run again and win.

But it is not so. The night before he would formally announce his candidacy, Hogg is mortally wounded by a Mexican assassin (rumored to be sent by Mexican officials). Hogg passes the next morning, but not before giving specific instructions to his family and friends. His final, dying wish is that he be buried not under a gravestone but a pecan tree. Hogg had always like pecan trees, and with his burial the pecan tree became the official tree of Texas. He also requested that the nuts from his tree be distributed throughout Texas, to make the Republic a "land of trees'. Congress voted to officially agree to the request, and shipments of pecans are heading to all corners of the Republic.



The Populists now have a large plurality in the party polls, and the Nationalist polls are the worst they've ever been. The Democrats are even polling higher. Hogg's death has garnered no sympathy for the Nationalist Party.



Our population recently broke 15 million people, but the statistics have changed little since last reported. Notable is the overwhelming support for the secularization of the government.



Mexico has declared war! They are likely underestimating our forces, since they see very few divisions on the border, and think they can use the opportunity to retake their land. They are mistaken.