Rise of the Sun of May - Part 3: Alcohol and Uprisings (1851-1858)

A recap of the situation: Governor Urquiza of Entre Rios has declared war on Rosas to implement the Partido Unitario unitarian style of running Argentina. Immediately after, Brazil and the bastards in Chile declared war to 'humiliate' Rosas' regime. The Triple Alliance of Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia, now called the ABC Bloc (Thank you /u/Red_Galiray), stands united but desperately outnumbered.

Entre Rios by itself has managed to conjure up a 21,000 man army. Meanwhile, several 20k+ sized armies sit in both Brazil and Chile, beginning to make for the border provinces.

Rosas calls in the reserves in an attempt to gain as many numbers as possible.

Taxes soar as Rosas attempts to gain more numbers, but monetary ones this time.

On October 13th 1851, Rosas commits one of the most controversial actions of his leadership. Without a single Brazilian or Chilean soldier fully crossing the border, Rosas accepts the Brazilians terms and catapults Argentina backwards in terms of international prestige and power. Some historians say he should have held his ground to show Argentine bravery while others say Rosas had no choice and the country and her military would be torn to pieces. We'll never know how it would have played out.

If you didn't notice, Argentina was previously considered 14th in international power, making it a Secondary Power. After the humiliating surrender, we were thrown down to 40th, coming in as merely a "Civilized Nation".

Our own propaganda even calls out Rosas actions as shameful. The editors were found dead in the following weeks.

Meanwhile, there is still business to attend to. Ángel attempts to secure Paraná as 12,000 more Entrerrianos rise to join their devious cause.

This makes a total force of 32,000. Even though they are mostly untrained civilians, Ángel does not see a direct attack as a viable option yet. The reserves join the fight while avoiding the massive stack.

President José Hilario López Valdéz of Colombia, a Liberal through and through, doesn't even make a move to assist against Entre Rios. This further backs up Rosas' conscience that surrender was the only option in the short Brazilian Conflict.

The Argentine Senate of 1852 is assembled. The voting patterns were practically the same as 1850 (again Partido Radical won no seats!), however after 3 Unitario Senators refused to condemn Urquiza's actions in the Entre Rios War, Rosas ordered them removed and replaced them with 3 fresh Federals.

On January 20th, Paraná is captured. Urquiza and his 30k stack still rage in the west as Ángel attempts to capture as much land as possible without interacting with the massive force.

However, in March, Urquiza's forces are spotted heading straight for Ángel. Ángel decides to hold strong with his attritioned 19k man army.

Devastatingly, a total of around 24,000 men die in the battle, with Urquiza 'winning' if you could call it that.

Ángel moves north in an attempt to regain strength as a small Bolivian army just sits in an uncolonized province. This army sits there for years to come. The Senate debates the effectiveness of the ABC Bloc.

In May, Peruvian President José Rufino Echenique of their Reactionary Partido Nacionalista meets with Rosas to form an alliance. The Peruvians join the war but there is one small problem- Peru has no army.

Rosas orders the science guys onto some military stuff.

The Entrerriano Siege of Paraná has reached its midpoint. Ángel worries his forces won't grow to size in enough time to defeat Urquiza before he recaptures the capital. Moving back down south, the army reheals at a very slow pace.

In a last ditch effort to stop the siege before Urquiza has a chance to win the war, Ángel moves in with a battered 7,000 man army to meet the Entrerrianos.

Ángel's forces are almost entirely destroyed. On October 8th, knowing the supplies can't keep up any longer and fearing a Entrerriano occupation of Buenos Aires, Rosas calls for a white peace with Urquiza. Urquiza, also noticing the effect of the war, accepts.

On October 11th 1852, a coalition of Federals and Unitarios manage to formally outlaw slavery. The Unitarios created the coalition by offering to formally apologize for galvanizing Rosas after the Brazilian Conflict if Federals would join them in enacting a Liberal reform. Rosas willfully signs the bill outlawing slavery after hearing the terms of the deal.

In November, Rosas orders the recruitment of 6,000 men- 3,000 to be infantry and 3,000 to be artillery to assist the sieges. Both of the units are to hail from the province of Junín, a place filled with young men eager to join the fight.

Word of smugglers on the border with Bolivia reaches Rosas. Knowing the deteriorating ABC Bloc wasn't effective in the least, Rosas decides to not snitch on the smugglers to the Bolivians.

Further backing up Rosas previous thought, the Bolivians have decided to ally the Entrerrianos, further complicating situations.

More money to the debt as Military Spending rises a little bit to please the vets of Ángel's army.

Beer Halls open all along the Andes provinces. Rosas, an avid drinker himself, allows the Beer Halls to open, hoping to tour them later in his life sometime.

In April, 3,000 Uruguayan Nationalists, led by a former Colorado, rise up in Montevideo.

With that begins the most frustrating TWO YEARS of Rosas' career. You see, now that Urquiza has split from Rosas, Uruguay is completely cut off from the mainland. After several meetings with the Senate and General Ángel, Rosas decides there are two viable but hard to accomplish ways of handling this. Plan A: Suck up to Urquiza in an attempt to gain military access through Entre Rios, or Plan B: Build ships in order to carry Ángel's troops across Río de la Plata. Rosas decides to dabble in both plans.

A Clipper Transport Ship begins construction in Buenos Aires as Rosas attempts to appeal to Urquiza.

Meanwhile, people begin complaining about alcohol ruining the country. Rosas disagrees with these "Temperance Leagues".

Rosas now faces the task of supplying the construction of both the new army and the new ship.

The Argentine Senate of 1854 is assembled. Partido Unitario has regained all of their formal seats. Meanwhile, Partido Radical joins the Senate with a seat, deciding not to join the Unitarians due to their disagreements on working with Rosas and the Federals.

Anyway, canned food is the only thing needed for both the ship and the troops, but supplies of it are sparse. Rosas decides to attempt to build a stockpile of it, hoping a bigger order might attract more sellers. (A tragic mistake realized much later is that I was in fact buying canned food but it was supplying the currently dormant army. Knowing this would have sped up the current situation by a lot).

Taxes go down and more debt is paid. (By the way, I will shorten the Uruguayan Uprising situation of building units because it is just a mess of me taking anger induced screenshots of the same screen not knowing how to actually solve the problem).

In August, the Senate votes to reform Debt Law. Debtors are now confined to brand new debtors prisons. Yay!

It seems like everyone is smooching up to Entre Rios. Dammit.

The Suffrage Movement is pissy about debtors being address and not them.

Rosas orders the research of Introspectionism because he heard it might help with reinforcement.

In July, Rosas decides to implement building restrictions on the Patagonian minorities in order to give them motivation to assimilate to the pure Platinean culture.

Finally, Rosas realises his previous mistakes and diverts canned food towards the recruitment and ship building.

After over 2 years of status quo in the military, shit finally starts building!

Word from Europe is that Prussia has managed to form a "North German Federation". The new Federation now faces the forces of both France and a newly united Austria-Hungary.

More debt killin' and budget raisin'

Even more Nationalists rise in Uruguay and Rosas worries Ángel might not make it in time.

In December, the ARA (Armada de la República Argentina) Águila is built in Buenos Aires and moves to carry Ángel and fresh troops over to Uruguay.

The Argentine Senate of 1856 is assembled. In surely the strangest Senate yet, the Partido Unitario completely fractures. The Unitarians begin disagreeing completely on nearly every situation, torn between backing Rosas, backing Urquiza, supporting an electable president, and continuing a status quo. The party breaks immediately after the 1856 election. Originally meant to have 7 seats, 3 Unitarians quit and are replaced by 2 Federals and a Reaccionarian, and 4 Unitarians join Partido Radical in their most successful election yet.

Former Unitarians who didn't join Partido Radical begin forming a new party- Partido Liberal. Former Unitarian Senator Adolfo Alsina leads the new party.

As Ángel easily crushes the rebels, in February the Partido Unitario is declared defunct. The party's legacy mainly focuses on their successes with the outlaw of slavery.

Rosas feels cultured.

After winning a small battle in Montevideo, Ángel, joined by all the brand new units, moves in to crush the main rebel force.

And easily wins.

As Ángel liberates Montevideo, drunken riots occur in the provinces where Beer Halls have been built. Rosas sees no connection between the two facts but there may be a little problem.

In June, Rosas appoints the disciplined Evaristo Avellaneda to the position of Admiral in the new Argentine Navy.

In August, Rosas orders a justification for war with Paraguay, seeing Paraguayan Dictator Carlos Antonio López (Nephew of the late de Francia) as ruthless in his treatment of Platinean minorities.

The people are easily convinced of López' hostility.

Rosas researches some mining stuff.

Meanwhile in Europe, the North German Federation is being physically destroyed.

Rosas orders the building of two more Clippers in order to support the full size of the new army at the same time.

After gaining the CB on Paraguay, Rosas is faced with the fact that López is allied to Chile who is also allied to both Brazil and Entre Rios. Basically Chile has managed to web us in as we aren't able to face their might yet at all.

Meanwhile, in the way of Great Powers, Bavaria has now become one (replacing Two Sicilies). This means that 7/8 Great Powers are European with 3/8 alone being German. This unbalance of power to the New World is not appreciated.

In the midst of a status quo in wars back home, Rosas begins eying the African nations of Loango and Kongo- both completely unprotected. Maybe one day.

Ángel begins training maneuvers with the new fleet, including boarding and landing simulations.

The Argentine Senate of 1858 is assembled. Partido Liberal (the colors are once again from the real life party) is greatly successful as people view them as almost a neutral option compared to the clear polarization of the Federalist Coalition and Partido Radical. Speaking of them, Partido Radical opted to join the Liberals in a coalition in order to hold on to some of their former power in the previous Senate. This creates the first ideological tie in the Senate's history. Rosas is advised not to interfere in the situation.

In the formerly Argentine province of Tarija in Bolivia, they have managed to build a factory- something Rosas has not managed to do at all.

A project to build a new railroad in the State of Buenos Aires is headed by Rosas as he pays (eventually) practically the whole bill for the thing.

Budgets go up and debt goes down!

In the way of NF, after using it to encourage intellectuals, Rosas now encourages soldiers.

The reason being a lack of manpower support for one of Ángel's units.

Immigration is actually doing better than expected after the situations we've been through. Immigrants almost entirely come from Europe and elect to move either to Uruguay or the larger cities in the west.

After hearing word that a naval base has actually been sitting empty in Bahía Blanca, Admiral Avellaneda moves in to station the ships there.

Rosas feeling cultured again.

Word from Paraguay on March 29th 1858. Paraguayan Dictator López has been overthrown by Reactionaries. A former colleague of López, banished after López' uncle established his dictatorship, has been declared a monarch. Mariano Roque Alonzo, stylized as Roque I, is now King of Paraguay. Rosas sees the situation as a boon- both Chile and Entre Rios have cut relations with the new government, leaving Paraguay open to engage!

On the same day of learning the news, Rosas declares war on King Roque I, intent on taking Paraguayan Chaco, an area that includes an oppressed Platinean minority. Only the AB of the ABC Bloc will be featured in this war, signifying a possible end of that era. Also Peru seems reluctant to join. We will see how this pans out in the next episode...