No Russian Imperialism (History of Margovya)

No Russian Imperialism is a Margovyan alternate history in which does not invade Margovia, and the country remains Hispanicized instead of becoming a bastion of Russification in South America.

No Russian Attack
Instead of declaring war on Margovia in 1891, Alexander III decides that the effort of invading a nation in the middle of South America is not worth the effort and decides to prepare for war with Japan instead. Because of this, the Nation and Government of Margovia would manage to survive for at least one more year, and then a group of Army officers dissatisfied with the way the Council of Ministers was running the country decided that it would be much better if they were running the show.

Coup of 1892
On the night of October 1, 1892, twenty regiments of Margovian line infantry, led by El Coronel Telesforo Jimenez Costas, walked down the Avenida de la Nacion and commanded his three regiments of 12-pounder cannons to fire on the Margovian Palace. The 5th, 6th, and 10th Council's Dragoons sallied out to meet the rebels, but massed rifle fire and the surprise appearance of the Regiment of National Pikemen decimated the cavalry and forced them to pull back. Loyalist infantry from the bases north of the capital city rushed to meet the rebel force, but the sheer number of enemy forces utterly annihilated the loyalists. Colonel Jimenez brazenly entered the Margovian Palace, stormed the Council Chambers, and declared the disbandment of the Council of Ministers and the erection of its replacement the Military Junta of Margovia. Chief Minister Julio Soledad protested Colonel Jimenez's announcement, for which he received a summary execution. As the rest of the ministers were chained and brought to jail, Colonel Jimenez sat down in the Chief Minister's seat, and declared the establishment of the Military Republic of Margovia.

Agbayani's Rebellion
For almost thirty years, the Military Junta of Margovia, led by Telesforo Jimenez, ruled the country. However, on January 4, 1921, Colonel Jimenez died of natural causes at the age of 67. El Coronel Eleuterio Elizalde Zamora was named the successor, but unknown to the junta, El Coronel Basilio Agbayani, son of the late El Coronel Mariano Agbayani Lopez of the Military Junta, had formed the Alliance to Restore Democracy to the Nation of Margovia with twenty other officers, with the intention of overthrowing the junta and restoring democratic rule to the country. The country was split between the Democrats and the Junta, until the Junta's citadel in Icol finally fell to the Democratic Alliance, and Colonel Elizalde surrendered to Colonel Agbayani. Agbayani, being the recognized leader of the Democratic Alliance, was named the first president of the new Republic of Margovia.

The twenty-one members of the Democratic Alliance:
 * 1) El Coronel Juan Basilio Mariano Agbayani de los Santos
 * 2) El Coronel Juan Antonio Armando Isidro Mariano Pozzorubio
 * 3) El Coronel Leon Maria Calvin de Porvenir
 * 4) El Coronel Bartolomeo Bacundo Donato Berdugo
 * 5) El Coronel Eleazar Narciso Carruthers Ibanez
 * 6) El Coronel Adriano Adriatico Calabazas
 * 7) El Coronel Nicolas Ernesto Juarez Hizon
 * 8) El Coronel Jose Benito Emanuel Sanchez Malonzos
 * 9) El Coronel Pablo Fulgencio Zobel de Santa Ana
 * 10) El Coronel Juan Federico dos Talinhos Teixeira
 * 11) El Coronel Pedro Alfredo Pardo Suarez
 * 12) El Coronel Jose Basilio Buenaventura de Salazar
 * 13) El Coronel Edilberto Manuel Cobarrubias Altamira
 * 14) El Comodoro Tomas Alejandro Rivadavia Blanco
 * 15) El Capitan Sebastian Amor de San Carlos
 * 16) El Capitan Jovito Consuelo Anderson Palacio
 * 17) El Capitan Maximo Nonato Dominguez
 * 18) El Capitan Juan Benito Morales Peralta
 * 19) El Teniente Coronel Ramon Fernando San Carlos de Santander
 * 20) El Teniente Coronel Ulises Rodrigo Garcia Zapata
 * 21) El Teniente Coronel Telemaco Gregorio Huesca Yarayo

El Coronel Juan Basilio Mariano Agbayani de los Santos announced the end of the Military Republic of Margovia and its replacement with the free and democratic Republic of Margovia on March 31, 1923. He was sworn in as the first president of the new nation on April 6, and one of his first acts as president was to move the nation's capital from Ciudad Arbat to the citadel city of Icol. On his orders, the surviving members of the military junta were tried in a massive court martial that inevitably charged them guilty of abuse of powers accorded with their ranks and sentenced to dishonorable discharges and between fifteen to fifty years imprisonment.

On April 28, 1923, the last remnants of the Junta forces finally surrendered to Colonel Agbayani, and the Margovian Revolution was finally over. The revolution had devastated Margovya economically and emotionally, with farms razed, pastures burned, and people still divided by their allegiances, so Agbayani initiated reconstruction and rehabilitation programs to help the nation get back on its feet. On May 21, 1923, Agbayani signed the 1923 Constitution, also known as the Independence Day Constitution, which is the constitution currently recognized by the Margovian government. However, even though the Constitution called for a democratically elected president, it took time to educate the Margovian people on the merits of a leader elected by the masses, and therefore Agbayani's rule began the historical period known as "The Regime of the Three Colonels."

Agbayani suffered a heart attack on June 27, 1926, and died soon after. Colonel Juan Mariano, Agbayani's de facto second-in-command during the Revolution, was named the new president of Margovia by the Democratic Alliance, although Lieutenant Colonel Agustin San Pablo protested Mariano's nomination and countered that he should be the new president. The rest of the Alliance merely laughed at San Pablo's self-nomination and inaugurated Mariano on June 28.

El Coronel Juan Antonio Armando Isidro Mariano Pozzorubio was sworn in as the second president of Margovia on June 28, 1926. He was only supposed to rule the country until elections could take place, but he managed to stay in power for almost six years, and it was very possible that he could have been in power longer had he not been assassinated by Agustin San Pablo and his followers on February 28, 1932.

During his time as president though, Margovia continued to experience progress as the country rebuilt itself from the devastation of the Margovian Revolution. More programs such as the implementation of the Social Welfare Act of 1930 improved Margovia's standard of living, and the land distribution programs of 1929 provided low-income Margovian farmers a chance to contribute to the country's coming economic resurrection in the face of the Great Depression.

On September 6, 1927, the Rodriguez District was split into two, San Lucas and Querudia. On September 9, 1930, Mariano signed the Minimum Wage Act of 1930, which decreed that the lowest income that a Margovian citizen should earn is 950 margots (then equivalent to US$865.50). On July 21, 1931, Mariano announced that Margovia will finally make the transition from a mostly agricultural country to an industrial one, as the continued growth of the economy had finally made it possible, and Margovia was declared one of the fastest developing countries in South America in 1932.

Mariano also arguably helped to sow the seeds of militarism into Margovian culture. As a firm believer in the power of the armed forces to protect and defend Margovian sovereignty, Mariano increased the budget allocation of the Ministry of Defense to ten million margots, a very large sum at the time. This allowed the country to acquire some of the time's best military equipment. Mariano also reintroduced conscription, which Basilio Agbayani was opposed to including in the Constitution back in 1923. All male Margovian citizens who are nineteen years old must serve four years in the Armed Forces, though in reality this only applied to the Army and Navy, as the Margovian Air Force, which was created in 1927, would only accept volunteers to what was essentially a deadly profession.

On February 28, 1932, while watching a fireworks display commemorating the birth of the Margovian libertador Bernardo Carruthers, Juan Mariano and some members of his entourage were killed when Agustin San Pablo and his followers opened fire on the presidential yacht with a Vickers machine gun mounted on the fireworks barge. Even though San Pablo was eventually killed in a battle with the Margovian Army and his followers were arrested, there was no denying that President Juan Mariano and seven ministers were dead.

Juan Arbat
El Coronel Juan Egidio Arbat Perez became the third president of the Republic of Margovia on February 29, 1932, a day after Juan Mariano was assassinated. Arbat promised that his term will be the last term of the Colonels of the Democratic Alliance, even though he was not a member of said alliance during the Margovian Revolution.

Arbat became the first ethnic president of Margovia, even though he was elected by the Democratic Alliance and not the people of Margovia, but his cultural heritage and promise to finally implement free elections in the country made him the most popular leader of Margovia at the time, second only to Basilio Agbayani, who had been posthumously declared "the Father of Free Margovia."

Arbat had initially planned to re-abolish conscription, but with the breakout of the on September 9, 1932 between Bolivia and Paraguay, Arbat was forced to keep conscription active so that he can send troops to aid Bolivia, which had sought a military alliance with Margovia after Bolivia lost its Pacific territories to Chile during the War of the Pacific in 1879 (not to be confused with World War Two's Pacific War). Margovia also had a vested interest in Bolivia conquering the Gran Chaco region, through which the Paraguay River flows, as control of this region would give the conquering nation access to the Atlantic Ocean and transoceanic trade. The military alliance between Margovia and Bolivia had also included a trade agreement, in which both countries agreed to trade each other's products through their trade routes. Since Margovia is on the Amazon River and therefore has access to the Atlantic, some ministers in Arbat's cabinet felt that Margovia had the short end of the stick, in that Bolivian products were being traded to other countries through Margovian ports. The Minister of War at the time, El Teniente Coronel Julio Alejandro Beria, cited this as the main reason why Margovia should join the Chaco War on the side of Bolivia. If Bolivia could gain access to the Paraguay River, then Margovian goods could finally be traded from Bolivian ports, equalizing the trade agreement, which had been controversial even back in the days of the Junta.

25,000 Margovian soldiers, arranged by the Army into the Margovian Expeditionary Force to the Chaco, began arriving in the frontlines on June 19, 1933. They helped the Bolivians beat back a large Paraguayan force besieging Tarija in August of the same year, but eventually both forces were beaten back by a prolonged land assault and the Margovians' early experiences with the new Paraguayan hand grenades, the carumbe'i. The Margovian Air Force also assisted the Bolivians by providing them with twenty Curtiss Falcon attack aircraft and five Boeing P-26 Peashooter fighter aircraft on January 1934. Three Falcons flown by Margovians, five Falcons flown by Bolivians, and one P-26 flown by Margovian ace Lando Casimiro were shot down by the Paraguayans, and Casimiro was captured and ransomed back to Margovia for 7,000 margots. The MEFC withdrew from the area in March 1935, but a few regiments remained under Bolivian service until the war's end in June 12, 1935, after which they returned to Margovia.

Meanwhile, on the homefront, Margovia continued to blossom as an industrializing country. On 1933, the Margovian margot became stronger than the US dollar (1 margot = $1.12 in 1934 values), although critics later attributed this to the Great Depression still affecting much of the United States and the world. In 1934, Margovia became one of the largest military powers in both South America and the Southern Hemisphere, although the large size of its military and the first effects of the Great Depression in the country would eventually cripple Margovia later on.

, Arbat's daughter and a leading women's suffragist in Margovia, successfully managed to lobby the provincial council of Bonjoaya into giving women in the province the right to vote. This led to a domino effect among Margovia's thirty provinces, and ten provinces finally gave women the right to vote in 1935.

Juan Arbat formally stepped down from the presidency on April 6, 1935, when Ireneo Amaro was elected the new president by Margovia's first free elections.

Ireneo Amaro
El Coronel Julián Ireneo Teodoro Amaro Larránzilla was elected the fourth president of the Republic of Margovia on April 6, 1935. He ran under the banner of the Liberal Party of Margovia, which was one of many parties who vied for the presidency after the restoration of democratic rule in the country. Amaro garnered 79.51 percent of the votes, making his election one of the largest electoral victories in Margovian history. A devout follower of Basilio Agbayani, he firmly believed that more could be done for Margovia, and that he could improve the country's economy even more even in the face of the Great Depression. He had a grand vision which he called the "Three Years to Ultimate Prosperity," and some of its aims were to create an unbelievable one hundred percent increase in gross domestic product, and increasing the value of the Margovian margot until it was worth at least one hundred US dollars. Unfortunately, by this time, the Great Depression had finally reached Margovia, and with the high level of American investment in the country, the economy soon followed the worldwide downward trend. Amaro tried to alleviate the effects of the depression by creating more industrialization programs throughout the country, but this didn't stop many people from growing resentful of the current government, and there were many popular demonstrations all over Margovia throughout Amaro's term, although many protesters stopped to eat at government soup kitchens before resuming their protests.

At least three coups attempted to depose Amaro, only for all to fail. The first attempt was by a large group of civilians calling themselves the Army of the Economy, and they tried to storm the Icól Citadel through the force of sheer numbers, but the police responded by shooting at the civilians, killing at least two hundred. Many of the police officers involved in the massacre were tried and sentenced to either life imprisonment or the death penalty, but Amaro's government remained unpopular. The second attempt was made by veterans of the Chaco War, who demanded that the state pay them their wages for services rendered during the war. The Margovian Army, which had been brought in to suppress the revolt, could not bring themselves to fire on their comrades, so it was once again the police's job to open fire on the veterans. One hundred seventy-five veterans were killed in the police response, and Amaro's popularity plunged even further. Finally, in 1937, both the people and the Army tried to rise up against the Amaro administration. As the people stormed the Icól Citadel and the Army guarded all roads leading in and out of the capital city, they found out that Amaro had been evacuated by the National Police to Ciudad Arbát, and that the police was waiting to initiate them in one of the biggest battles of the Interwar Period. In the end, ten thousand soldiers, seven thousand policemen, and fifteen thousand civilians had been killed in the Second Battle of Icól.

By the end of Amaro's term, Margovia's GDP had plumetted, while the margot once again became weaker against the US dollar with $1 being equal to 19.78 1938 margots. Amaro's grand vision of "Three Years to Ultimate Prosperity" came crashing down with the GDP, but his efforts to improve the country's heavy industry would eventually pay off and help with the country's recovery in the 1940s and 1950s. Because of country's economic collapse, Amaro humbly decided not to run for the 1938 presidential elections, and the Liberal Party of Margovia also decided not to send forth a candidate, as their popularity with the people had fallen along with Amaro's.

Meanwhile, Amaro's daughter, another prominent women's suffragist, was one of the first women elected to the Margovian Senate, alongside compatriot Juana Arbat. Together, they got the Senate to give all Margovian women the right to vote, but universal suffrage in Margovia would not happen until after World War Two.