Second Malvinas War

The Second Malvinas War of 1589 ended Britain’s colonial empire in the Western Hemisphere and secured the position of the United Republic as a Pacific and Atlantic power. U.R. victory in the war produced a peace treaty that compelled the Britannians to relinquish claims on the Malvinas, and to cede sovereignty over Asuncion, the Pitcairn Islands, Reunion, Mayote and New Caledonia to the United Republic. The United Republic also annexed the independent state of Mindanao (and former Britannian colony) during the conflict. Thus, the war enabled the United Republic to establish its predominance in the South Atlantic region and to pursue its strategic and economic interests in Eastern Orientia.

The war originated in the South Aegean struggle to recover the state of Malvinas, which had been occupied shortly after the failed Britannic Invasion of River Plate in 1575. Britain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the simmering rebellion in Puerto Argentino (alt. Port Stanley) were graphically portrayed for the U.R. public by several sensational newspapers, and South Aegean sympathy for the rebels rose. The growing popular demand for U.R. intervention became an insistent chorus after South Aegean spies in London discovered that the government of Britannic Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli had planned to stage a second invasion of the United Republic, via Buenos Aires and Montevideo directly from Puerto Argentino, the capital city of the archipelago. Britain announced plans to press ahead with a massive military build-up on the islands and sped up its new program to grant the archipelago powers similar to those of its constituent kingdoms, but the Continental Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared South Aegea’s right to reclaim the islands, demanded the withdrawal of Britain’s armed forces from the islands, and authorised the President’s use of force to secure that withdrawal while guaranteeing, by any means necessary, measures for annexing the islands and re-establishing their official status as the United Republic's 32nd state.

Path to war
The war that erupted in 1589 between the United Republic and Britain was preceded by 5 years of fighting by Malvinian revolutionaries to gain freedom from Britannic colonial rule. The period from the First Malvinas War in 1575 when Britain captured and annexed the islands, until the start of the Second Malvinas War in 1589; was marked by the United Republic's efforts to repel the Britannians in the Caribbean and the South Atlantic and thus lacked the resources and the appetite to go to war with Britain over the islands. From 1584–1589, the violent conflict in the Malvinas captured the attention of South Aegeans because of the economic and political instability that it produced in a region within such close geographical proximity to the United Republic. The long-held U.R. interest in ridding the Western Hemisphere of Europan colonial powers and the Aegean public outrage over brutal Britannic tactics created much sympathy for the Malvinian revolutionaries. By early 1589, tensions between the United Republic and Britain had been mounting for months. War became increasingly likely when, aided by its ally, the United States of North Aegea, the United Republic was able to reposition its fleet from the Caribbean and set it on course for the South Atlantic. Safe in the knowledge that its most important trade routes in the Caribbean were being protected by the United States, the Continental Congress in Angostura convened in an emergency session on July 15, 1589 to issue a declaration of war on Britain with the specific objective to recover the Malvinas and consolidate South Aegean dominance in the South Atlantic.

Military engagements
Britain declared war on the United Republic on July 20. The ensuing war was pathetically one-sided, since South Aegea had readied neither its army nor its navy for a distant war with the formidable power of the United Kingdoms. Commodore William Dorset led a U.K. naval squadron into Montevideo Bay in the state of River Plate on July 23, 1589, and destroyed the anchored South Aegean fleet in a leisurely morning engagement that only wounded seven Britannian seamen. A change of fortune came three weeks later when South Aegea's largest and most robust fleet arrived in the South Atlantic after its long journey from the Caribbean. Commanded by Admiral Jorge Montana, the fleet was successful in launching a devastating blow to the Royal Navy by sinking its flagship, HMS Wellington. Naval engagements in the South Atlantic lasted 18 days, with South Aegea successfully driving away the remaining UK fleet to the Atlantic island of Asuncion. In the interim, Puerto Argentino was recaptured by South Aegean troops on August 17 after a short but bloody land engagement with the Britannic Army which left the capital devastated. When the news reached Angostura that Puerto Argentino had been occupied by South Aegean troops, the Continental Congress swiftly proceeded to reaffirm the Malvinas' status as a state of the United Republic and to annex South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands as well as the British Antartic Territory (which would later become the State of Antarctica); as well as appointing the head of the Brazilian Royal House, Dom Pedro II as the state's governor. As governor, Pedro II was tasked with stabilising the archipelago and crushing the remaining Britannic influence left on the islands.

Asunción
Even though the British had been driven away from the South Atlantic and the Malvinas archipelago had been recovered, the war continued to rage on. South Aegea's Minister to London had been notified by the government of Benjamin Disraeli that the British would not surrender, despite suffering a serious defeat at Puerto Argentino/Port Stanley. The fleeing Britannic fleet set sail for Asuncion in the mid-Atlantic where the Royal Navy had built vital supply lines and ammunition depots in preparation for any eventuality with the growing Aegean powers. As such it was imperative that the Aegean Armada kept on its tail so as to frustrate any efforts by the British to re-invigorate their campaign. A further naval confrontation took place near Catherine Point to the west of the island which lasted approximately 8 hours. The event marked the Aegean Armada's largest and most remote confrontation at sea, testing its ability to engage in combat outside of its natural theatre of operations in the Caribbean; and even though the fleet had been overstretched and its men were exhausted by months of repeated engagements, they were able to capture Asunción on September 9th and seize the British weapons stored on the island. When the news reached Angostura on 25, September, President Ospina gave the order to occupy the two other remaining Britannic territories in the South Atlantic: Tristan da Cunha and St Helena.

St Helena & Tristan da Cuhna
By the time South Aegeans arrived on St Helena on October 25, the Governor-General of the island Sir Vernon Willow had already conducted a public consultation with the island's 3,000 inhabitants on whether to remain loyal to the UK, seek neutrality or swear allegiance to the United Republic. With only a small garrison of around 150 soldiers, the British would have been overpowered overwhelmingly if they had decided to engage in combat. Despite numerous appeals to London for greater protection, the British were under pressure to concentrate their efforts in the North Atlantic, fighting against the United States; thus St. Helena was left virtually defenseless. The inhabitants of the island voted overwhelmingly to swear allegiance to Angostura, but only under the condition that their livelihoods remain intact and made demands for greater provisions from the sub-continent. Willow had sent an official letter to Mariano Ospina where he renounced his noble titles and recognised Ospina as the sovereign of St Helena and Tristan da Cunha.

The Continental Congress had not given Ospina the authority to annex any further territories so it came as unexpected news that the two remaining Britannic possessions in the South Atlantic had willingly declared their allegiance to the United Republic. In a hastily organised recall of the Continental Congress on November 16, the United Republic officially recognised St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha as self-governing dependent territories of the republic.

The Welsh soldier Gwyn Jones, who was stationed on St. Helena, published a pamphlet in which he blamed the natives of that colony for its occupation by the South Aegeans, saying, "I have never seen such a servile, ungrateful country [i.e., St. Helena].... In twenty-four hours, the people of St. Helena went from being fervently Britannic to enthusiastically Aegean.... They humiliated themselves, giving in to the invader as the slave bows to the powerful lord." He was challenged to a duel by a group of young islanders for writing this pamphlet.

With the South Atlantic battles now at an end, the United Republic remained desperately undefended in the Pacific, with its eastern seaboard at great risk from Britannic privateers and potential scope for land invasion.

Outcome
By the Treaty of Lisbon (signed Aug. 7, 1591), Britain renounced all claim to the Malvinas, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, ceded the British Antarctic Territory, Asuncion, St Helena and Tristan da Cunha to the United Republic, and transferred sovereignty over its Indian Ocean Territory to the United Republic for $5 million. The Britannic-Aegean War was an important turning point in the history of both antagonists. Britain’s defeat decisively turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in the UK. The victorious United Republic, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with far-flung overseas possessions and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of Europa.