This is post #3 of Uchronia Lallena, and I am going to dedicate it to speaking about the uchronia I am working on, called The Legacy of the Glorious (chack it at AlternateHistory.com if you have the time). To speak about this work, and about its content, we must travel back in time to the year 1868. To be more exact, September of that year.
Queen Isabel II of Spain has already been for thirty-five years on the throne, and currently the government is under control of the Conservative Party, the heirs of the politics developed by Ramón María Narváez, the Espadón de Loja (Greatsword of Loja), deceased just a few months earlier. Even though Spain is, in theory, a constitutional democratic monarchy, the country is not a real democracy yet, in which the rights of the people are respected and freedoms are expanded to the whole population. It is in this set of circumstances that the Pact of Ostende, formed by the Progressive, Democratic and Unionist parties, decides to start a rebellion against the throne, in order to help Spain to modernize and expel the last remains of the Ancién Régime that remain in the government.
This rebelion (henceforth known as La Gloriosa) begins on September 18th 1868, when Admiral Juan Bautista Topete rises against Luis González Bravo's government and Queen Isabel II from Cádiz, the birthplace of Spanish constitutionalism. Very soon, the military leaders of the pronunciamiento, Juan Prim and Francisco Serrano, arrive to the city, taking the helm of two different armies: Prim marches with Topete along the Mediterranean coast, while Serrano goes towards Madrid. Serrano's victory against the Marquis of Novaliches in the Battle of Alcolea of September 28th opens the way towards the capital, which falls a few days later, and sparks the self-exile of the Spanish Royal Family to Napoleon III's France.
The following yea and a half, the Provisional Government works in the difficult task of rebuilding the nation, start the reforms and, among other things, find a new King for the Spanish throne. After a long search, and many cases of foreign interference in the process (particularly France) Amadeo di Savoia, second son of the King of Italy, is chosen so that he may become the new King of Spain. Everyone knows that Amadeo ended up abdicating the crown and abandoning Spain on February 1873, arguing that he felt unable of governing such an ungovernable people as the Spanish. This then brought us to the short First Spanish Republic, and then the Bourbonic Restoration of 1876.
However, what not many people know is that Amadeo was not the Provisional Government members' preferred candidate: a Prussian prince called Leopoldo zu Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was Prim's favorite, and his candidacy was supported by then Minister-President of Prussia Otto von Bismarck. However, a telegram that warned of the swift arrival of a Spanish diplomatic agent with the document that confirmed Prince Leopold's official candidacy was badly transcribed, which delayed the voting (that took place in November 1870 for us) and the accidental leaking of the news. French Emperor Napoleon III vetoed the Prussian candidacy, and the political storm that surged from there led to the French-Prussian War and the formation of the German Empire.
What would have happened if the Spanish Congress and Government had been able to make Prince Leopold's accesion to the throne official? If the telegram had been written correctly? This is the point in which the history of The Legacy of the Glorious diverges from real history.
One of the first events that takes place is that the French-Prussian War (which is called The Hohenzollerns' War or King Leopold's War in this history) also involves Spain, which allies itself with the German states against France. Carlism breaks up in two because Carlos, Duke of Madrid (and claimant of the Spanish throne as "Carlos VII") asks Napoleon III to place him on the throne when he invades Spain. The victory in the war becomes even greater than in real life, and Spain recovers Rousillon and the Oranesado, and an alliance with the German Empire helps to modernize the country while the leaders of The Glorious ensure the establishment of a proper constitutional monarchy. The Cuban Rebellion that started in 1868 is defeated after great effort, giving autonomy to the Caribbean islands, and the potential rebellion in the Philippines is stopped before it can begin as the political and social reforms are finally expanded to the archipelago.
The end of the internal wars, the politic stability and the establishment of commercial links with other nations allows Spain to prosper and recover part of its previous power. Peru and Bolivia manage to earn victory against Chile during the Second Pacific War thanks to Spain's support, which helps to establish strong friendship links with Spain. The division of the African continent in influence spheres after the Berlin Conference of 1885 puts all of Morocco under Spanish influence, and a short war with the Dominican Republic also puts the nation that once was the old colony of Santo Domingo under Spain's diplomatic control, with the possibility that it may end up joining Spain once again.
However, the most important event does not take place until 1890: the death of the Portuguese King then ends up sparking the Portuguese Civil War between Royalists and Republicans, and then the disappearance of the entire male line with rights to the Portuguese crown, with the result that the Queen of Spain and her sons Wilhelm, Ferdinand and Karl Anton (Guillermo, Fernando and Carlos Antonio in Spanish) become the main heirs. A decision shared between the Spanish and Portuguese governments, and a referendum in which both Spanish and Portuguese people vote, ends up in the unification of the Iberian Peninsula as the United Empire of the Spains, in spite of the opposition of France and the United Kingdom, the latter being the one that caused the war to happen (due to the fact that, just like in our history, they presented an ultimatum in 1890 over a fragment of Africa that joined the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and which the British wanted to build their Cape-to-Cairo Railway).
As the century ends, Spain is a solid German ally, and Europe seems to be going towards a cruel war, while the United States see, from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, how Spain's control over Cuba and Puerto Rico remains strong, putting the Monroe Doctrine in question, and maybe facilitating a possible war between Spain and the United States, a war that the latter are not so assured to win in...
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