Interlude: A Pan-American Congress
Interlude: A Pan-American Congress
The Nineteenth Century: The Saga of Equestria
September 1, 1825
Canterlot, Equestria
To the Most Serene Majesties of Equestria,
Greetings. I am Simón Bolívar, President of the American nation of Gran Colombia. You have, most likely, never heard of Gran Colombia, or indeed, any nations south of Mexico. I must confess that I know little about your nation, as well. That being said, in June of 1826, Gran Colombia, along with several other American nations, including Mexico and possibly even the United States of America, will be holding a Congress at Panama. I have, for your convenience, inclosed several maps of the region. It would be a great honor if Your Serene Majesties could attend. Due to political and other reasons, I am sorry to say that we can only offer an observer status, but despite this, I am certain that the Congress will be enlightening for all parties.
Sincerely,
President Bolívar
(Enclosed: Five different maps of the Panama region and original of the letter, written in Spanish.)
“Wow,” said Princess Luna.
“Wow, indeed,” observed Twilight. “I don’t think we can ignore this.”
“No way,” agreed Cadance. “This is monumental. We have to send a delegation.”
“We do,” said Celestia, “and we should send everyone. I mean, all of the Royal Council, the Chancellor of the Royal Court, and several missions’ worth of diplomats. If this letter means what I think it means, then we have the opportunity to open diplomatic relations with several different nations at once.”
“I hate to say it, but we should also bring some of the First Corps and the Royal Guard, if for no other reason than to protect ourselves from bandits and the such,” said Luna.
“You have a point. They will slow us down, but may also lend us legitimacy and the such. I’ll ask Shining Armor to put together a force for us.”
June 22, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
Before the start of the Congress
A hush fell over the within the Congress humans as the Princesses of Equestria, with their diplomats and human translators, entered the meeting hall.
Celestia took a brief moment to think back to the Advisory Assembly. I hope that they are working alright, especially since we borrowed the Chancellor of the Court to act as a representative. If we get back and they’ve done something stupid…
She stopped her musing, as a human had split off of the Congress and approached them.
“Greetings, Your Serene Majesties,” he said in Spanish. The ponies’ translators did their job, of course.
“Greetings…” Celestia trailed off, as she did not know who this human was.
“My apologies. I am President Simón Bolívar, of Gran Colombia. I organized this Congress and invited you.”
“Greetings, President Bolívar. I am Princess Celestia. This is Princess Luna, my sister. This is Princess Cadance…”
She introduced each member of the Royal Council, and the rest of the diplomatic delegation. The President bowed to each member of the Council, and nodded politely to each other member of the Equestrians’ delegation.
“...We are here on behalf of the Principality of Equestria.”
“I hope that you found your hotel, and other accommodations that I arranged for you were satisfactory…”
“They were indeed. We thank you.”
The human hesitated, then said, “I must confess, Princesses, we have heard only vague rumors and mutterings about your nation, so I hope you will forgive any prying questions or stares pointed in your direction. Humans are a curious species, and we have never seen anything quite like you.”
Celestia grimaced slightly, but said, “We have come to expect this, in our dealings with the human race. I hope that you will, in return, understand that we are not at liberty to answer certain questions.”
“Of course. There is a saying that a leader does not remain a leader for long if he - or she, as the case may be - does not appreciate the value of silence.”
Celestia smiled. Shifting the topic, she said, “It is the policy of the Principality to open diplomatic relations with every nation we encounter. With that in mind, we would like to open relations with your Gran Colombia.”
“Gladly. In turn, I will arrange for a diplomat from Gran Colombia to accompany you back to your nation, and establish an embassy there.
“Now, I am certain that representatives from the other nations will want to speak with you, as well. We will begin the Congress in about an hour.”
(An hour later…)
“Come to order, esteemed delegates. Before we begin, I would like to thank everyone for attending the Congress of Panama. Special thanks to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and to the...Principality of Equestria, for attending as observers. We welcome comments from the observer nations, but would like to remind them that they have no vote.”
Celestia leaned back slightly, and nodded to signal her understanding, as the British delegate did the same. She was alone, as each nation only had one seat at the table. The rest of Equestria’s delegation said behind her, back a meter or so. They should have no issues hearing her and the other nations.
“The Congress is now in session. The first order of business is to discuss Spain, and the threat poses to all liberty-loving American nations.”
The diplomat from Mexico leaned forward, and said, “Indeed. Spain has been attempting to reconquer the United Mexican States for five years now, and they are a dark menace that threatens other state’s hard-won sovereignty.”
The Peruvian diplomat chimed in, saying, “I doubt that any of us will deny the threat that the Spanish pose to us. They may have lost almost all of their colonies, but empires do not die easily.”
The discussion about Spain continued, and Celestia held her peace throughout it. As she had little knowledge about this Spain, she would have been of little help.
Instead, Celestia observed the delegates’ discussion in silence, and thought quietly to herself. They have quite a lot in common: a single language, cultural similarities, the same origin country, one religion, and the like. While they claim to have different titles and the like and use different labels to describe themselves, I am not so sure that they are so different.
June 25, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
“...and that, my esteemed colleagues, is why we should establish a mutual defence pact, with a common army and generals. With it, we will be able to stand against Spain, France, or any foreign threat, without having to rely on the United States. Of course, we are thankful for the United States’ proclamation to discourage European imperialism in the New World, but we cannot maintain our national honor if we simply rely on a completely different nation.”
President Bolívar sat down, his bit said.
June 30, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
“...The establishment of a supranational parliamentary assembly shall be in the best interest of all of those within the Confederation, as we could then meet together and discuss affairs that concern all of us.”
July 2, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
“No. We will not lower tariffs. Those tariffs exist to protect Peruvian products from cheaper items made in nations will better developed infrastructure than ours. Lowering our tariffs would be inviting death upon our domestic market!”
July 7, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
“But who will lead such an expedition? Mexico is hardly the only nation with claims to those ports, after all. My nation of Gran Colombia also has claims!”
“You should be wary of provoking Spain,” added the British delegate. “As was said before, the Empire of Spain is on the decline, but it still has a well-disciplined army that would pose a significant challenge to overcome. Also...forcefully seizing colonies from Spain could send the...wrong message...to other countries that also have colonies in the Caribbean.”
July 15, 1826
Panama City, Gran Colombia
“I present to you, esteemed colleagues, the Treaty of Union, League, and Perpetual Union, in its final form. If all members of the Congress could attach their signatures, and forward it to their governments for ratification,” said Bolívar.
“Unfortunately, the countries that attended only as observers are not members, and are not invited to the Confederation at this time. I’m sure you understand.”
Celestia nodded, understanding the practicality behind the maneuver. After all, Equestria was populated by an entirely different species.
“The Congress agreed yesterday that we would transfer the Congress to Tacubaya, México. All the member states are invited.”
“Unfortunately, the Principality of Equestria will be unable to continue with this Congress. We have spent too much time already here, away from the affairs of our nation. We are still continuing the westernization process, and we must return to Equestria to oversee the remainder of the process,” replied Celestia
“That being said, the Equestrian Royal Council applauds this Congress, and the spirit it is conducted in. It reminds me of the founding of Equestria itself, when the Three Tribes of Ponykind united against a common foe. I hope that this union works for everyone, and that the Principality will be close friends with your peoples.”
September 15, 1826
Canterlot, Equestria
“Chief of the Deputies, tell the Royal Council and the Chancellor of the Court what has transpired in Equestria since our departure.”
“Yes, Your Highness. The Advisory Assembly has been hard at work, implementing the orders you left for us. We have approved funds for and laid the foundation for an expansion of the Canterlot harbors, bought designs of some British ships, established a rudimentary naval academy, advised by British naval officers that we hired, and have imported several human medicines for study.”
“Excellent. I call for a vote to ratify the Assembly’s decisions, believing them to be in the best interests of Equestria. Any objectors, speak now.”
Pause.
“Hearing no objections, the Royal Council hereby ratifies all decisions of the Advisory Assembly. You are dismissed, Chief.”
The Chief of the Chamber of Deputies bowed deeply, then left.
“Now, the Ministry of the Sciences and Arts wishes to present a solution to our...ah, monetary issues?”
“Yes,” replied Twilight. “We have been considering the issue, and have this to propose: Establish a central bank, a national bank, and give them the authority to issue paper money.”
“Paper money?”
“Yes. We will retain the bit, and set each bit to be equal to a certain amount of pure, 24 karat gold. According to comparisons with the American Dollar, given the current amount of bits in circulation, one ounce of pure gold should equal about one hundred, fifty bits.”
“And we have the ponies trade in their bits?”
“Yes. We simply declare that all currency of a certain denomination and higher, say, ten or twenty bits, must be traded in for paper currency by a certain date. After that date, we no longer recognize the old denominations.”
“Interesting...that idea will bear studying…”
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Economy, so useful but so hard to understand, at least it looks like they'll have solved their economical problems for now, all that is left is to find the resources or goods they can produce that will allow them to start trading with other nations.
Glad to see the Equestrians liking so far the desire of union among the americans but also seeing the born of pan americanism. I'm also glad to see the formation of a relationship between the Gran Colombia and Equestria, while this congress was happening this is what happened in the country:
In April 30th 1826 The Venezuelan General José Antonio Páez would start a protest called La Cosiata against the centralised government dominated by Neo Granadinos asking for a reform of the Constitution of Cucuta, Santander (Vice President at the time) would ask the senate to remove Péz from his position of General Commander of the Department of Venezuela and decided to have him tried (in Bogotá) by vote of the Senate. Since another Venezuelan Officer was once tried and executed (in an unfair manner) Páez accepted the removal, but he didn't went to Bogotá, 3 months later the Venezuelans decided to revolt against the council, who then decided to give Páez back his position of General. Páez then decided to rebel against the government.
In April 2nd of 1828 due to Páez insurrection, a convention was done in Ocaña to reform the Constitution (with Páez and Santander on the side of a Federal Government and Bolívar on the side of a centralised government, suffice to say that Páez had more followers). Bolívar (desiring for a Great Colombia united against external and internal struggle) decides to proclaim himself a dictator (as he now calls the shot since the country is now in a emergency status) and in August 1828 decides to add the idea of Lifetime Presidency (with him being the first) and that HE (the president) decides who would be the next president. Since this was looked as a return to the times of Spain and its monarchy, many start to attempt to murder Bolívar.
December 27th 1829 An assembly gathered in Caracas decided to stop recognizing Bolívar's authority and Colombia and decided to proclaim Páez as their president, and Páez tells this to Bolívar in January 1830 by telling him to accept the separation of Venezuela from Colombia. Bolívar tried to fix the situation but he congress didn't granted him the dictator powers he needed to talk with Páez so Bolívar renounce to his position of President in that same month (January 1830) since it was one of the points that Páez was asking for (in other words: Bolívar resignes or we go to war).
After a bit of political movements the 4th Republic of Venezuela is declared in September 2nd 1830.
March 24th 1831 the first elections are done with Páez winning the elections with a total amount of 136/158 votes (if I'm not wrong, the votes were done in the Congress, not through direct elections like today).
April 11th 1831 Páez made the oath of Presidency, this is a piece of his speech that day:
Páez managed a relative peace during his term, with high rank military veterans (from the Independence war) managing a slight economic recovery from the war (population wise: before the war, there were 900.000 Venezuelans, when it ended, there were left 600.000) especially with the proclamation of the Law of Freedom of Contracts (which allowed the exportation of coffee and helped with the economy, but for some conditionate event is caused a political and economical crisis which ended with its elimination in 1848) starting this way the formation of Venezuela (under the rule of the Conservative party).
Granted Páez had to deal with uprisings like one from José Tadeo Monagas, the pro-monarchy revolution from José Dionisio Cisneros and Pro-Colombian from Cayetano Gabante both in 1834. As well a religions problems and political (from military who were unhappy from not having a say in public administrations) and by civilians and members of the University community who wanted the Presidency of the medical Dr. José María Vargas (even though he didn't wanted to position).
In 1835 Páez granted the Presidency to José María Vargas, the first civilian leading the country (February 9th - July 9th 1835), although he didn't wanted to rule and he faced pressure from the military government who disliked him and practically forced him out of the Presidency.
Bolívar meanwhile was left alone with a few friends and a few affectionates to him (by this point he was suffering from Tuberculosis) and was going to leave to Europe, when he heard of the murder of Sucre (who was like a son to him) in July 1st 1830, he got demoralised (which worsened his TB), he was so bad that he couldn't leave the country.
On December 1st 1830 he would stay in the house of a friend in Santa Marta, Colombia where while he had good medical care, his disease actually got worse, in his last moments of lucidity he made his will and last proclaim hoping that with his death would consolidate the union and the disappearance of [Political] parties.
Simón Bolívar died in December 17th 1830 at the age of 47 years.
I know this was lengthy, but I wanted to inform everybody of what happened, and what was going to happen at this time, granted the author can use this information however he decides will be useful for his story since he is going to start relationships with Colombia.
You know, I would wonder if Bolivar would introduce himself as President of Gran Colombia in that letter, or at least just with that title. While it's true he held the title all the way to 1830, at the time of Congress he was also President of Peru and currently lived in Lima, and was also serving a brief time as President of Bolivia at the time of his letter to Equestria. Hehe, imagine if he had put all that in his letter. The princesses would've see just how big of a deal he is to South America. Perhaps with an amusing reaction or something since those are three different countries he was president of at the same time.
This is a very interesting chapter.
6906542
I very much appreciate this, as South American/Mexican/Central American history is not very well taught in schools in the United States...Europe and Asia captures most of our attention.
However, Colombia is not going to have very many relations with Equestria...at least, not yet. I'm thinking it will happen more in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Thanks, though!
6907587 You welcome, since I've been having some free time recently I've been spending my time researching my country's history, so far I'm reading a book called "Guzman: an ellipse of ambition of power" which is basically a biographical novel of Antonio Leocadio Guzman, founder of the liberal party (1947), an intellectual (created a newspaper called El Argos) and father of the future President Antonio Guzman Blanco, it helps a lot by telling the social conventions of the time.
Example: being in the military and educated at the same time was rare to see and frown upon to the point that they weren't respected unless they had military achievements (Bolívar got a pass for obvious reasons), heck, the president Carlos Soublette (1837 - 1839 and again 1843 - 1847) was like this, military, intellectual but never got the favour of his military comrades, thankfully, he is respected nowadays.
So far in the book, I've reached La Cosiata, but that was just the 1st part out of 8 so it will be interesting. After that I will read "The Fall of the yellow Liberalism"
If you want, I can tell you what was happening at the time so you can have a better idea of how to use the characters or develop the relations for Equestria.
But I haven't lost that you said Colombia and not Venezuela, if that wasn't a typo, now you got me curious, have a nice week and good luck with your projects.
6906774 yeah, that's the sad thing of 19th history in LATAM, no matter how good they look, they weren't actually good or totally good, to the point that it's kind of a miracle that the countries never got destroyed in the process (although they've been close).
6907587 since equestrian is in California
i have to ask how will u do the California gold rush?
give all the gold to equestria?
6907587
Looking over, I see I need to step up with my own place's history, hahaha. Well, now that Equestria is starting to get more active with what happens outside their borders, I guess the time is right for that.
6907587 Also since you mentioned the American Civil War (1861 - 1865) it means that at least it will be in 1866, by this point it has been 3 years since the Federal War was over (with a Liberal Victory which abolished once and for all slavery, penalty of death prison for debt, press liberty and universal vote for executive and legislative positions) and the President of the moment is Juán Crisóstomo Falcón (1863 - 1868) who over the course of the years would be getting more and more dissidents from the Liberal Party (his political party) because he would grant high positions to his friends and would start to suppress those who didn't agree with him, in the end, both Liberal and Conservative would join forces to get rid of him and his government. By 1867, with guerrilla attacks on the whole country, it ended turning up in another civil war and The General Miguel Antonio Rojas would appear with a Blue flag which would call his insurrection "The Blue Revolution" and on the other side of the country, José Tadeo Monagas would be making another insurrection against the government .
By March 25th 1868, the General Monagas (at the age of 80) would make official his revolt against the government (meaning 2 generals leading the revolt). By April 28th 1868, Falcón resigned the Presidency which would be assumed by President Manuel Ezequiel Bruzual (April 25th 1868 - June 28th 1868), followed by Guillermo Tell Villegas (appointed by Tadeo Monagas) and later José Ruperto Monagas (June 22nd 1868 - April 27th 1870), son of Tadeo Monagas (who died at this time and it was decided to appoint his son Ruperto as President), he would later be taken down by Antonio Guzmán Blanco (1870 - 1887), starting the Guzmancismo in Venezuela.
Tip: by abolishing the Penalty of Death in 1863, Venezuela became the first modern State in the world in doing so.
If you want more information I will try to research a bit more and inform you.