The President’s Message:
The annual Holiday Party will be on Wednesday, December 14th.
Robert Macomber will be our speaker. Gift certificates will be greatly
appreciated for the raffle.
Dues will be collected starting in November. Pay early and avoid
the January rush.
I will be starting a new feature in the newsletter called “Fact or
Folly”. The answer will be given at the next meeting and will also
be in the next newsletter.
Fact or Folly: Is there anyone still receiving a Civil War
military pension ?
November 9, 2016 Program:
Robert Krasner will be the speaker. Robert's topic is "Stonewall
Jackson - Military Genius?" Robert Krasner will give a biography and
analyze Jackson's military prowess.
September 14, 2016 Program:
The Round Table meeting on September 14, 2016
was a panel discussion of what was going on in the world from 1845 -
1870. The panel will be made up of our members with each one
giving a 10 -15 minute summary of a particular country. Countries to
include Spain, England, Germany, Mexico, China, and France.
England,
presented by Fred McCarty.
England was the most powerful nation in the world.
The Royal Navy projected this power on all of the oceans.
There were those in the government who wanted to invade the
United States at its time of weakness during the Civil War.
Others had no stomach for a third war with America.
In order to balance this threat Lincoln formed an alliance with
Russia. In the fall of 1863
Russia sent a fleet to New York harbor and other ships to the west
coast.
Early in the
war the upper class in England backed the Confederate States of America.
To this end shipyards, particularly the yard of Laird and Sons,
built ships for the South. A
few got out under false pretenses.
Most notably the CSS Alabama who holds the world record for sinking ships at war was
built there. However,
diplomats from the US caused the British to rethink their policy of
having a blind eye on warships built on their soil.
This had the effect of stopping the Laird rams, an iron-clad of
particular menace. In
October of 1863 the Royal Navy to steps to capture the ships that were
built and in the process of being armed.
Keys to the English change of heart were the Emancipation
Proclamation, the Russian threat, and Union battlefield victories.
China,
presented by Robert Krasner.
During the years under discussion China had a great deal of unrest.
The Qing dynasty was under pressure from a rebellion in the
south. From 1644 until 1912
the Qing ruled China. In the
late 19th century trade, war, and technology shaped events in
the country. Of particular
note was the railroad on land and the steam ship at sea.
However, the Qing had been in decline after 1800.
The first Opium War (1839 – 1842) lead to the opening of Chinese
ports to western nations. A
second Opium War (1856 – 1860) was fought leading to more western
domination of trade.
The Taiping
Rebellion (1850 – 1864) led to the death of 20 million and great unrest.
Chinese elites together with the aid of England and the United
States helped the Qing to hold on to power.
The fact that China sided with the United States was due to the
fact that the Union was facing a similar revolt from the South as the
Qing was facing from the Taiping rebels.
Spain,
presented by Robert Schuldenfrei.
The Kingdom of Spain and
the Confederate States of America should have been allies during the
American Civil War. The fact
that they were not is the basis for this brief discussion.
A superficial look at Spain would reveal that the kingdom had
kept slavery alive in their Caribbean territories.
The United States had backed revolutions in Spanish colonies
using the justification of the Monroe Doctrine.
Spanish elites including Queen Isabella II, Prime Minister
O’Donnell, military leaders, and aristocrats were sympathetic to the
Southern cause. Plantation
owners in Cuba and business leaders identified with the Confederates.
Spanish newspapers cheered Rebel victories.
Ports in Puerto Rico and Cuba provided safe harbor for smugglers
and blockade runners.
Why Spain failed
to recognize the Confederacy rests on internal Spanish affairs, European
relationships, the arc of the Civil War, and Western Hemisphere
activities and beliefs. The
reign of the Queen from 1833 until 1868 neatly covers the period of this
discussion. It was not a
tranquil period of Spanish history.
It was fraught with unrest at home and abroad.
Spain was weak
both financially and militarily so its options for direct actions were
limited. It did not want to
upset the European powers, mainly England and France.
This led to inaction of the years of interest here.
Spain deferred to other countries and preferred a “wait and see”
policy in most cases. Both
the liberal and conservative governments during this period took very
little action.
From Spain’s view
point Cuba and the lesser Caribbean was always the “elephant in the
room.” It guided all of the
decisions. Fear of
revolution there or annexation by the United States was the main reason
Spain did not choose sides.
The Spanish leaders believed that the South before the war would annex
Cuba, Dominica, and Porto Rico and create new slave states.
During the war the Confederates looked to these islands as allies
they could control. So, in
spite of the fact that Spain was in favor of slavery in Cuba it would
not side with the South.
Spain simply mistrusted the Confederacy.
Spain saw in the North a country committed to the Monroe Doctrine
ready to support revolution anywhere in the western hemisphere.
And, with the abolitionists firmly in control in the North, Spain
could not side with them either.
As a world power the US was on the rise.
Fear, thus caused inaction.
France,
presented by Barbara Susco.
France of the late 19th century was the beneficiary of the
state left behind by Napoléon Bonaparte.
This legacy was manifest in government, art, and law.
Most of the countries of Western Europe, and Louisiana in
America, used some form of Napoleonic law.
After the defeat of Napoléon I you saw a flowering of the arts
called the Romantic Period.
This was expressed in painting, literature, and drama.
But the politics of this period was not all good for France.
France was improving internal public works and expanding
externally by way of colonies.
However, the country was caught up in the wave of revolution in
the 1830s and particularly 1848.
During our
period of interest Louis-Napoléon, or Napoléon III, was emperor of
France. The reign was
referred to as the Second Empire.
During the American Civil War, and with a weak Spain, his
administration saw an opportunity to regain a possession in North
America. Mexico was the
target. France set up a
puppet government headed by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria
enthroned as Emperor Maximilian I.
Sadly for the French, and personally for Maximilian, not all of
Mexico wanted foreign domination.
The Second Mexican Empire faced resistance from the republican
government of President Benito Juárez. After
victory in the American Civil War in 1865, the United States made clear
that France would have to leave. It
sent 50,000 troops under General Philip H. Sheridan to the U.S.-Mexico
border, and helped resupply Juárez.
France saw that they had no choice so they packed up and left,
leaving Maximilian to his fate.
Back home,
things went poorly for France.
Trouble with Prussia led to the Franco – Prussian War and the
occupation of Paris in 1870.
Napoléon III was captured, imprisoned, exiled in England, and died in
1873.
Germany /
Prussia,
presented by George Nimberg.
In the days before unification Germany (January 1871), or Prussia, as it
was known was not a world class power.
That it became so was due to one man, Otto von Bismarck.
Like all of the nation-states in Europe the 19th
century, Prussia was in the middle of large scale industrialization.
Before there could be unification there was to be separation.
That took place along religious lines with Catholic Germans
splitting off and bonding with Austria.
Protestant Northern Germans became what would be called Germany.
It was not all politics as many social reforms took place under
Bismarck’s leadership. That
notwithstanding, he provoked three short, decisive wars against Denmark,
Austria, and France, aligning the smaller German states behind Prussia
in its defeat of France. In 1871
he formed the German Empire with himself as Chancellor, while retaining
control of Prussia. His diplomacy
of “realpolitik” and powerful rule at home gained him the nickname the
"Iron Chancellor." German
unification and its rapid economic growth was the foundation to his
foreign policy. Coal and
Krupp steel formed the backbone of a formidable army to carry out his
policies.
Mexico,
presented by Janell Bloodworth.
The principal story of the period under study is the saga of
Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife Carlota.
Both Grant and Lee had fought during the war with Mexico as young
American officers. Both
thought the war was a stain on the character of their nation.
By winning the war the United States gained most of the West.
It was the byproduct of the concept of manifest destiny.
In 1861 there
was a partial political vacuum in Mexico.
France saw an opportunity to regain some North American territory
while America’s hands were tied in the Civil War.
They set up Maximilian as emperor with the consent of upper class
Mexicans. It was not a
complete takeover of Mexico as the Republican forces led by President
Benito Juárez continued to be active in northern Mexico.
With the end of the American
Civil War in 1865, the United States (which had been too distracted by
its own civil war to confront the Europeans' 1861 invasion of what it
considered to be its sphere of influence) began more explicit aid of
President Juárez's forces.
Now, Maximilian was a benign dictator and had the best interests of the
Mexican people in mind, however, he was tainted by the elite and seen to
be the puppet of France.
When the American sent forces to the boarder in 1865 France left and it
was expected that Maximilian would too.
But Maximilian stayed on and was arrested and executed in 1867.
Carlota had fled, but this matter was more than she could handle.
She went insane and remained so for 60 years!
Last changed: 10/12/16
Home
About News
Newsletters
Calendar
Memories
Links Join
|
