Southern Confederation
The Confederation of the Southern Provinces (Baliscano: Confederación de les Províncies del Sur), commonly known as the Southern Confederation (Baliscano: Confederación del Sur), was the predecessor state to the modern-day Baliscan Confederation. Spain under Joseph Bonaparte attempted to forcibly re-impose colonial rule in the Baliscan archipelago, marking the end of the "Espanya Boba" period of Baliscan history stretching back to the early 18th century. Although there has been research on the idea of a pan-Baliscan identity that overlapped the early political boundaries, political unification of the archipelago was not the aim of most, nor was it necessarily inevitable. In fact, there was little coordination between the different factions in the opening years, despite their mutual interest in resisting the Spanish attempt at conquest. The Confederation was established following the issuing of the Proclamation of Alcazaba between the republics of Cerdanya and Hesperia against Spanish reconquest, precipitating the Resistencía.
Confederation of the Southern Provinces Confederación de les Províncies del Sur (Baliscano) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1808–1837 | |||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||
| Motto: Pari passu English: "With an Equal Step" | |||||||||
 Territory under de facto Confederal control (red) | |||||||||
| Capital | Alessandria (de facto; 1810-1827) Merced (1827-1837) | ||||||||
| Common languages | Judaeo-Spanish, Catalan, Galician, Italo-Dalmatian languages Indigenous languages (Kurupiran language, Yaghan language, Tupi-Guarani languages), Mozarabic, African languages (Yoruba language, Igbo language) | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism, Catharism, Sunni Islam, Sephardic Judaism | ||||||||
| Government | Confederation | ||||||||
| President | |||||||||
• 1811-1821 | Julyan Garrigós | ||||||||
• 1826-1837 | None | ||||||||
| Legislature | Confederal Congress | ||||||||
| Historical era | Latin American wars of Independence | ||||||||
| 20 February 1808 | |||||||||
| 11 August 1819 - 18 December 1820 | |||||||||
| 1 August 1827 | |||||||||
• Secession of Bayara | 6 July 1828 | ||||||||
| 18 October 1837 | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1810 | 7,239,881 | ||||||||
| Currency | Baliscan sol | ||||||||
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The Spanish had wider support in the economic Bayaran economic elite, in the hopes of preserving slavery (upon which it's profitable plantation economy was based). This support intensified to the Proclamation of Alcazaba, in which the Southern Confederation pledged to "fully eradicate" the practice. However beyond this, the Bayarans had little affection for the new Bonapartist regime in Spain and it's struggle for legitimacy. Unlike the other Spanish American Wars of Independence, the Resistencía was primarily fought to preserve independence against an attempted imperial reconquista, as opposed to the civil wars between colonists seen in South America.
In 1815, representatives of Royalist Bayara surrendered to the confederal forces following the decisive Battle of Navassa, effectively destroying the last royalist strongholds in mainland Balisca, allowing the rebels to consolidate ending the threat of invasion against the Confederation. While this did not change the position of Spain against separatism, it resulted in the collapse of royalists forces Balisca. Over the course of the next two years, the Anti-royalist armies won major victories and consolidated their control in their respective provinces. The continued political instability in Spain, without a navy, army or treasury, convinced many former royalists of the need to formally abandon their cause and embrace independence.
Confederalization also did not result in the end of political turmoil, and was immediately followed by political infighting. The fledgling Confederation imprisoned, hanged, or expelled all former slave owners (most relocated to Imperial Brazil and Argentina), and divided their land and other assets between the newly emancipated African population. Additionally, the confederation did not have a well-defined identity, but rather the process of creating a new identity was only beginning. This would be carried out through newspapers and the creation of national symbols.
Independence also did not result in the end of political turmoil, and was immediately followed by political infighting. The fledgling Confederation imprisoned, hanged, or expelled all former slave owners (most relocated to Brazil and Argentina), and divided their land and other assets between the newly emancipated African population. Additionally, the confederation did not have a well-defined identity, but rather the process of creating a new identity was only beginning. This would be carried out through newspapers and the creation of national symbols.
Most significantly, borders between the emergent communities were not firmly established, and competing movements for federalism or confederalism were becoming increasingly violent. The two largest states that emerged from the wars—Bayara and Hesperia —fought a bloody conflict over the Confederal Question that effectively split the fledgling confederation from 1819 to 1820. It led to the partition of Bayara, propped up by the Cerdanyan Legion in the Estuarian wetlands. The Confederation eventually would descend into a civil war and collapsed entirely in 1828, following Bayara's attempt to rescind it's confederalization.
Hesperian delegates called for a Confederal Convention to solve the impending crisis, to be held in Alessandria. The convention resulted in the Compromise of 1827 which provided for a significantly strengthened central government to handle disputes between the respective communities and their territories. This was unanimously supported by the delegations of Hesperia and Cerdanya, but was opposed and ultimately ignored by the Bayarans, with the exception of the delegation from Macaio. These delegates were at the time aware that the republic was well on it's way towards renouncing the Articles of Confederation and seceding from the Confederation, and sought to pre-empt this by declaring the Carpinchera Republic. Bayara announced it's denunciation of Articles of Confederation on 6 July 1828, and the secessionist Xunta Nacionalista assumed provisional powers in anticipation of war.
Despite controlling a numerical troop advantage throughout the war, the Bayarans were unable to overcome its geographic disadvantages: it was relatively flat, it was unable to establish control over high mountain passes across the Matarrañya / Cañadapirén, and thus were unable to directly threaten Hesperian territory. Bayaran armies attempted to capture the Alpujarra, culminating in the Siege of Castejón, which was beaten back following the intervention of the Maroon Confederacy in support of Confederalist forces. Additionally, it was further hobbled by a far larger confederalist navy. By 1835, most Bayaran pro-secessionist land and naval forces had either surrendered or otherwise ceased hostilities. Despite this the war lacked a formal end, with bands of secessionist guerrilla forces fighting, surrendering or disbanding sporadically throughout most of 1835-1837. Tensions reignited after a massacre in Brumavent, in which pro-secessionist soldiers executed the hundreds of captives and vowed to continue their guerrilla warfare.
This triggered significant unrest on both sides and reignited the already high tensions between the Catalans and Castilians that resided in the Western Plains. Reprisals and counter reprisals escalated, and the two factions subsequently fought a series of battles across the Estuarian wetlands (referred to as the Two Hundred Days), in which the confederalists again emerged victorious.
Bayara was punished severely in the Treaty of Isàvena: they were forced to pay the expenses and debts incurred by the Confederation during the war, in addition to the the Legislative Assembly's being coerced into ratifying the Compromise, resulting what became known as the Reconstruction era. Communes and regions within Bayara that had sided with the conconfederalists following the Brumavent massacre largely avoided occupation. In addition, the Confederal Council forced the ceding of significant amounts of land in Bayara's south, which was allocated to the Maroon Territory under "amical protection" of the Confederation pursuant to the Afro Atlantic Charter.