"The guerrilla must swim in the people as the fish swims in the sea." - Mao Zedong
The spirit of resistance that now fueled the Spanish insurgency was also burning bright in South America. At the same time the Spaniards were throwing off the French yoke, Southern American countries were throwing off the Spanish yoke. It was the end of an era. Just as the French were finding that occupation of Spain would be impossible, so the Spanish were finding that continued colonial rule was impossible. Nationalistic fervor had gripped the continent.
The 1810s would see revolutions break out everywhere. Since the French had forced Ferdinand out, the climate had become ideal for republicanism. Spain was too busy fighting for its life to contest these little rebellions, and by the time the Napoleonic Wars were over, the colonies were in full revolt. Spanish men would be shipped overseas to stem the revolutionary tide, and though they would fight hard, the guerrilla swims in the people as the fish swims in the sea. The French could not win and the Spanish could not win because they were unwilling to drain the ocean. They had two solutions: either to win over the hearts and minds of insurgents and convince them that continued colonial rule was desirable, which was almost impossible given Ferdinand's reactionary tendencies and the burgeoning soul of rebellion and nationalism present. The 1820s would roll around with victory still nowhere in site. Indeed, victory would be impossible. There is no man strong enough to stop the tide from rolling in.
With the 1830s passing by, the old colonies were reborn as new countries, independence finally being recognized. 300 years prior, they had been subjugated by the call for God, Glory, and Gold. It was an old way of empire, and the old ways were well and thoroughly dead. But with the closing of one chapter of imperialism begins another. War is the way of mankind. The conservative imperialism was replaced by a new imperialism, the Liberal Imperialism. And with that, came new and fantastic means of slaughter. The roots of it were born then. Macgregor Laird, one of the first to sail deep into the Heart of Darkness, was born with the war. The old imperialism would die with the war. As the war came to a close, new chemicals would be isolated. As the 1840s came into being, technologies would rise as surely as revolutions did. New advances in medicine would finally seal that grave of Christian men. Those clumsy, prototype machine guns, incendiaries, and chemical weapons used to try and stop Elsa's magical powers would see rapid development as new doctrines of war were fleshed out. With those new weapons, the savage continent would be tamed. Steam would replace sail, and steam would give ship the strength to go upriver into the African interior, a vast, unknown plateau. Steam would also demand the establishing of worldwide bases to refuel ships as they patrolled the vast blue seas. Industry had remade peace. Soon, it would remake war. In the New Imperialism, at last countries had the means to enact death on an industrial scale. One hundred staunch British would now be the equal of ten thousand whirling dervishes with the power of a Maxim gun on their side. Defensive tactics and offensive strategy. Man would fly. Man would fly, and man would kill. The bomber would always get through. Stronger than one? Stronger than ten? No, stronger than a million men!
And in the trenches of Verdun, men cursed Elsa's name in vain. They wept as clouds of death passed over and fire rained from the sky. Surely if these abominable weapons of war had not been invented to defeat her, then they would not have been invented at all. They swore in vain. The power of great trends was propelling them forward, and all great men were doing was grabbing onto the hem of His Garment as it passed. Perhaps the war would not have come as soon, but come it would. The ideas which had been planted and spread to the sound of guns a century earlier had grown old and strong, and yearned to grow stronger still.
Liberalism. Conservatism. Communism. Capitalism. Fascism. Nationalism. There is no greater danger in the world than a new idea. A new idea demands that it change the world, and so many dwell in and depend on the old world. The counter-revolutionaries must be purged. The mud races removed. We must civilize the savage and help them however way we can. We must acquire additional resources to increase the prosperity of mankind. We must suppress those who dream of freedom. The urredeemed land must be reclaimed. Once, wars had been fought by men. A man, no matter how strong, can only kill so many. Now wars would be fought by ideas, wielding the terrible and sublime weapons of industry. There is no idea of the modern age that is not drenched thoroughly in the blood of innocents. The conquests of the African continent, and the barbarities done by civilized, liberal men in the name of progress. The brutal slaughter of young students by saber and shot for crimes of thought. The Blood Purges and great famines of Mao. The addiction of a whole people to a wasting, degenerating drug for the sake of new trade and resources. The wholesale extermination of peoples for nothing more than long-diluted blood. The killing of men, women, and children for the sake of patches of dirt. The ideas called out, asking for their brave new worlds to be made, and people answered. One chapter was closing. Another began. Only the dead have seen the end of war.
