The Southern Empire

In the year of 1549, the first Governor General of Brazil arrived from Portugal.  Born in the year 1500, this man was sent to the New World merely to get him out of Europe, where the superstious Europeans had begun to fear this man.  He did not age, and held radical and un-Catholic ideas.  His name was Manuel, and he took a new surname; Brasil.  He led a large propaganda effort attempting to get colonists to leave for the New World, which ended up being amazingly successful.  More than sixty thousand people followed him to the New World.

Over the next two centuries, he largely kept to himself, governing wisely and with few incidents.  His radical ideas led to a dramatic change in the administration of the colony of Brazil.  He led efforts to create large local industries and a self-sustaining local population.  His rule of the natives and of the slaves was brutal, but much more even-handed than any other Portugese noble dreamed of.  After ten years of work, African migrants were mandated to be freed, and children were prohibited from being born into slavery.  The native population received similar treatments beginning in the late 1600s.  And Brazil grew dramatically, attracting a constant stream of Portugese colonists that settled along the long coastlines.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the colony of Brazil raised and maintained a navy of some thirty frigates that asssisted Portugal in maintaining its independence.  And when Wellington led his army into the Iberian Penninsula, Governor Manuel Brasil equipped and deployed ten thousand soldiers to assist him.  As a reward for his service, the Governor was allowed to declare his independence in the year 1816 and decare the Empire of Brazil.  He immediately turned his sights on the fragmenting and newly independent Spanish Empire.  After ten years of solid economic and military growth, the Empire of Brasil was ready for its first ever wave of expansion and declared war against the republics of the former Spanish Empire in 1826.

Through careful use of diplomacy and a carefully timed suprise attack, Brazil was able to conquer the entirety of South America and the Federal Republic of Central America over a six year period.  On January 1, 1835, a peace was concluded that left the Empire of Brazil controlling all of South and Latin America south of Mexico apart from three small European colonies still controlled by the Dutch, English, and French.  And after the Mexican-American War, the Empire of Brazil immediately managed to purchase these three relatively insignificant colonial areas for large sums of money, leaving them one of the largest nations in the world.

After the Gadsen Purchase, the Emperor of Brazil (now known almost exclusively as the Emperor, a title he had held for 38 years) became convinced that the United States was determined to expand southward.  Discontented with the Empire's border with Mexico, he decided to fight a war of annexation, intending to invite the US to join in along the north.  But as the US became increasingly gridlocked, he abandoned this idea in exchange for a unilateral strike.  And in the year 1857, the Empire of Brasil declared war on Mexico.

By this time, the Empire of Brasil was a highly developed nation, rougly equivalent in technology and economic development to the United States (though slavery had finally been completely outlawed in 1850, and the native population was busily being integrated into modern Imperial society).  The war against Mexico should have gone smoothly.  But it didn't.  The Mexican government resisted skillfully in the south for six months, although the Empire was clearly winning every major battle.  But in this time, Mexico had convinced Great Britain, France, and Spain to intervene upon their behalf, convincing these governments that the Empire of Brazil had to be stopped before it became so incredibly large that no other nation could successfully fight it.

And so these three European powers contributed enormous sums of money and large fleets of ships to combat the Empire.  Spain took to the war enthusiastically, using it as an excuse to cover up their own inadequacies.  While Britain and France tired of the war quickly (withdrawing all forces after only four months), Spain contributed for the long haul, landing an army of nearly 65,000 in Mexico.  The Empire of Brazil was caught up in the Mexican-Imperial War from 1857 to 1860, when Mexico finally surrendered.  The Empire then turned their attentions to the Carribean, quickly annexing Cuba and Puerto Rico to demonstrate to the Spanish that it was a mistake to oppose them.  The Empire of Brazil eventually signed a peace treaty with Spain in 1862.

Following the bloody war in Mexico (over a quarter million combined dead), the Empire of Brazil announced that it was dissolving its regular army.  The Imperial Guard, a force of 15,000 soldiers, would guard the Imperial City (what we would know as Rio de Janeiro) and the Imperial Navy would be composed of nearly five hundred light ships, each with a small compliment of marines, and only a dozen major battleships.  This would remain the case from 1863 to 1899.

Between 1863 and 1899, the Empire of Brazil expanded their holdings in the Carribean slowly and peacefully, purchasing island colonies at every opportunity from Great Britain, France, and the Netherlands.  By the turn of the century, the Emperor would have procued every single island for the Empire, including the very northerly (for the Empire) Bermuda.  But by 1899, the situation was decaying quickly within the Empire.  While the economy was free and booming and civil rights were widespread, being afforded to both genders and peoples of all colors and ancestry, there were no political rights in the Empire.  The Empire of Brazil was still an absolute monarchy closely aligned to the Catholic Church (although nobody was forced to worship, many non-worshipers were angry that they were forced to support the Church with their taxes).  Mayors and Governors were appointed, and the Senate consisted soley of nobles and clergy (although fairly revolutionarily for the time, female nobles were allowed to take powerful seats in the Senate).  There was no Constitution clearly enumerating the rights that the Emperor had given his subjects

In 1899, the Empire of Brazil was rocked by a series of public protests and tax revolts.  The Emperor refused to get involved or order his subjects to obey the laws, but many local officials acted without authorization.  More than five hundred civilians were killed by policemen, and riots began to break out randomly.  Reformers demanded a Constitution, a second elected house of government, and locally elected officials.  And the Emperor as inclined to give it to them.  Setting a speech for May of 1899, he would have announced these reforms.  Until he was removed from the throne by his own Senate, eager to preserve their own power.  While all attempts to kill him failed (he even regrew his own head after it was chopped off), he was still easily imprisoned beneath his own palace.

The Senate authorized massive repression of the protests and raised a massive army through conscription.  The people (including the extraordinarily wealthy but politically dispossessed business owners) formed their own armies and fought back.  The civil war killed over a million people in a mere two years before the Emperor escaped with the help of the Imperial Guard and proclaimed the dissolution of the Senate.  The armies (still technically sworn to serve him) switched sides and executed more than two hundred noble families and their personal retainers.  The Emperor on January 1, 1902, declared the Empire of Brazil to be a free nation and proclaimed a Constitution clearly carving out more than thirty different rights of the people, as well as forming a Constitutional High Court of nine judges to decide on all disputes about the Constitution.  Mayors, City Councils, and State Legislatures are to be popularly elected, as in the United States, while Provincial Governors will still be appointed personally by the Emperor.  However, all titles of nobility were revoked (besides those possessed by the Emperor himself) and each province is to send four Senators.  Three popularly elected Senators, and one that is appointed by the Provincial Governor.  The army was dissolved, although the massively expanded navy the Senate had created was preserved.  Two of the most controversial provisions in the Constitution was that marriage could occur between any two people who had reached the age of twenty-one by a state official and that eminent domain for any reason was now unconstitutional.

In 1914, World War I broke out and the Emperor swore to remain neutral.  He had no interest in the wars of Europe.  He refused to assist any nation involved in the war.  He also refused to cooperate with the League of Nations or any of the many international treaties that came into existence in the aftermath.  The Empire, even more than the United States, remained detached and independently prosperous.  The one major effect of World War I in the Empire was that it convnced the Emperor to begin investing in major research projects for new weapons, specifically tanks and aircraft.  By 1930, the Empire of Brazil had the largest and most advanced air force in the world and was determined to keep it that way.  They also invested heavily in the Imperial Navy, constantly updating ships and building new classes of vessels.  Their tank research was left by the wayside, and in 1930 the Empire had only several dozen native tanks that were only mediocre international specimens.  They decided to simply sell a production run to anyone who wanted them (they ended up exporting about three hundred tanks to various sources in Eastern Europe and Asia).

The Emperor knew World War II was coming, but decided that it wasn't going to affect him.  He thought that it would simply be another European war and focused on keeping his country out of the world's economic turmoil (something that he was successful at doing).  By 1939, the Empire was by far the most prosperous and advanced nation in the world.  The Emperor had decided that he would simply be doing his part by allowing the Jews to find easy refuge in the Empire; no other aid to any nation or people would be offered.  He knew that the Empire was safe thanks to its enormous and advanced air force and navy.

Despite knowing what had happened in World War I, the scale of destruction and Germany's apparent ascendance in the Second World War took the Emperor by surprise.  He was shocked by fascism's easy victories and by the West being forced to rely on the much-hated (within the Empire) Soviet Union.  The Empire had never even recognized the Soviet Union diplomatically.  And so the Emperor decided to go to war.  But he didn't want to involve his people in the brutal European war against Germany, who he felt was vastly superior to his ground forces.  He amassed an army of nearly three-quarters of a million within the Empire and sailed them over for a massive attack...against Portugal and Spain.

The wars on the Iberian Penninsula were difficult, mostly thanks to geography.  The Empire had enormous preponderance of force, and Germany decided that it couldn't spare any assistance after the main attack came in late July 1942.  The Empire's intentions were unclear as they were not cooperating with the Allies and had never recognized the existence of any of the Fascist governments.  Using numbers and superior technology and logistics to drive back the Portugese and Spanish armies, the Iberian Penninsula was completely won over by May 1944.

With an announcement on June 2, 1944, the Empire announced that its newly aquired territories would be annexed into the Empire of Brazil, shocking the world.  The Allies and Axis both decried these actions, but neither were willing to attack Brazil with such an intense war going on in their own territories.  After D-Day commenced, the Emperor decided that the Allies were going to win the war and decided to continue the mobilization of soldiers at home and moving them abroad into the Iberian Penninsula.  And in September of 1944, the Empire officially declared war on Nazi Germany and landed a huge invasion force of over a million and a quarter soldiers in Yugoslavia and Albania.  Tearing into not only German forces but Bulgarian and Partisan forces, Imperial forces adanced rapidly.  The Empire even clashed with Soviet forces (they had still not begun regular diplomatic contact with the Soviets) until the Soviets decided not the contest Yugoslavia and focus on the Germans.

The war ended on a similar schedule to in the real world, with official resistance ending in early May of 1945.  The Empire of Brazil announced the formation of two new provinces: Greater Illyria (Yugoslavia and Albania) and Iberia (Spain and Portugal).  An enormous reconstruction budget was announced, and the Empire demobilized.  The world had been shocked by the Empire's expansionism and by the enormously advanced aircraft and naval vessels they had deployed.  The Empire was clearly at least ten years ahead of the rest of the world in air and naval technology and nearly on par with the US' warmaking technology in other areas (though the Empire wouldn't detonate a nuclear weapon until 1948).

The Empire became an increasingly capitalist and libertarian society under the general control of the Emperor over the next fifty years while consolidating its security in Greater Illyria.  While rapidly working to develop Spain and Portugal's few remaining colonies, all were granted independence to various movements in 1966.  These states remained allied with the Empire of Brazil.  The Empire kept an army of roughly a quarter million stationed continuously in Greater Illyria to safeguard against Soviet Union.  The Empire also rapidly embraced the use of nuclear power.  By 1955, all of the Empire's submarines and aircraft carriers were nuclear powered, and by 1965 there were over a hundred nuclear power plants placed throughout the Empire.  While ignorning the space race, domestic technology sped ahead of the rest of the world.  The Empire's tanks and aircraft were at least a full generation ahead of the United States', and the standard of living was higher as well.  Additionally, the Empire of Brazil refused to trade or speak with the Soviet Union or Communist China while giving Israel substantial support.

The Empire also shocked international sensabilities by refusing to join any of the world's international bodies or treaties.  The Emperor did not interact with NATO, the UN, the IMF, World Bank, or GATT, among mnay other groups.  The Empire would maintain its independence no matter what, as he announced repeatedly.  The Empire largely ignored the outside world, signing limited free trade agreements and carrying out commerce like always.  While the Empire refused to help Communism, it didn't spend any time opposing it either.  And the gap between it and the rest of the world grew.  Increasingly, the United States and Japan were its only competition in terms of invention and discovery.

Things continued on in this fashion throughout the Cold War.  In 1987, the Empire announced that it had completed a major initiative called the Holy Shield.  The Holy Shield would shoot down an approximate 55% of all ICBMs launched against the Empire and would research and upgrades to keep the Empire safe would continue.  While this caused a shock in the Soviet Union, the nearing collapse of the dictatorship kept them from doing anything.  Just as the Cold War ended and the Iron Curtain fell, the Empire announced a secondary major initiative nearing completion: a miniaturized nuclear engine that would power the Empire's larger naval vessels.  This revolutionary engine allowed larger cruisers to also be outfitted with nuclear power plants, something that the Emperor had long looked forward to.  By this time, a private space industry had also sprung up within the Empire.  In 1990 and 1991, three massive telescopes were launched by private organizations.  These telescope were more powerful and self-sustaining than the brand-new Hubble Space Telescope.  These private organizations also began launching private space stations, with a massive combined project being put into orbit in three years, between 1997 and 2000.  The Imperial Space Station has since been expanded a dozen times and has a full crew of seventeen.  Eight different models of private spaceship have docked with the Imperial Space Station.

In the 1990s, the Empire, along with the rest of the world, was rocked by the internet.  It embraced this new technoloy, quickly integrating it into an already vibrant and growing technology sector that produced cheaper and more powerful computers than anywhere else in the world.  They also cut back on defense spending, cutting their army in Greater Illyria down to a mere seventy-five thousand soldiers.  But they maintained their massive air force and navy, continuing to upgrade their hardware and training continuously.  The Empire contributed close air support and mine clearing operations to the First Gulf War, suffering no casualties and losing only a single plane.  By this time, the Empire was still exporting fossil fuels but used only gasoline and diesal; regular power generation relied entirely on nuclear power and hydroelectric power.

The Emperor was shocked by 9/11.  The attacks enraged him, and he vowed to support the United States in finding its vengeance.  Relations with the US had been uneasy throughout the 90s as the Empire refused to offer formerly Communist countries charity or send peacekeepers to areas that needed them.  The Emperor called for 350,000 volunteers to form a true Imperial Army.  He recieved over a million volunteers, and thus upped funding to create an army 750,000 strong.  As the United States launched its attack on Afghanistan, the Emperor ordered a similar assualt launched against what he considered to be the leading cause of Islamic terrorism and a nation where the Empire had been funding assassinations since 1981: Iran.  The Empire invaded Iran in a shock and awe campaign with 750,000 ground soldiers and full air and naval support in February 2002.

The invasion shocked everybody; even the US had no idea that the Emperor had planned to invade Iran and demanded privately that they leave and choose a more palatable target.  The Emperor was shocked by the world's reaction, unable to understand by the United States was so set on invading only certain enemy nations, and refused to change his mind.  He announced on March 28, 2002 the expansion of the Empire to the province of Persia, and warned the world that the Empire would not tolerate attacks against them or nations they maintained good relations with.  The government of Iran fell rather quickly; they were unable to defend against the Empire's overwhelming force.  But the Emperor had not bargained on such a long and bloody occupation.  He had never had to deal with one before.  The Empire, blindsided by this, adopted a truly brutal approach to annihilating its armed enemies througout 2002 and until mid 2005, increasing the number of soldiers in Persia until they peaked at 2 million.  This campaign was spectaculaly brutal and cost over a million lives on all sides before the Emperor declared the region pacified in September 2005.  But local resistance and terrorism dragged onwards.  Only by managing to turn the Kurds and people of Baluchistan into allies did the Emperor achieve any sort of major success.

By the next decade, the region had begun to quiet.  Terrorism was at an all time low and the entire world realized that if they sponsored terrorism within the Empire, they would destroy their military and annex their territory.  Persia remained underdeveloped and violent, but things were getting better as the economy began to fully integrate into the Imperial economy and the Persian people were granted the freedoms of Imperial citizenship.  It remains to be seen how stable former Iran will turn out to be or how the rest of the world will react to the Empire's most recent annexation.