Guest Post: Graham Island

This post first appeared on Today In Alternate History. 

10 July, 1831 - Graham Island emerged, following a month of intense seismic activity, as a full-grown islet between Sicily and Tunisia in the Mediterranean Sea.

During August, sailors of the Royal Navy ship of the line HMS St Vincent planted the Union Jack. Claiming terra nullius (free for anyone to occupy), they named the island Graham, to honour the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham. The triumphalist report from Captain Humphrey Fleming Senhouse spurred Graham to declare the island a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean. Naval reinforcements were promptly dispatched to prevent French or Sicilian privateers from gaining control of the area at the heart of European shipping routes.

Even before these vessels could arrive, a four-way sovereignty dispute had developed. Claiming for the Bourbon crown, Sicilians sent their own ships, naming the island Ferdinandea after the King of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand II. Yet even they were beaten to the chase by the French Navy who made a landing, and called the island Julia, because it was born in July. It was also in reference to France's July Monarchy, which had seen the Orleanists overthrow the Bourbons. Spain, too, declared its territorial ambitions.

None of these four nations would back down although the appetite for conflict was limited so soon after the Napoleonic Wars. After several naval clashes, the short-lived War of Graham Island would be won by Great Britain. However, the Royal Navy's victory would have profound long-term consequences for the whole continent. The significance of the war was disguised by the humiliating loss of national prestige that would mark the end for Louis-Philippe, King of the French, and his ill-fated July Monarchy. Meanwhile in Naples, Ferdinand also faced serious challenge to the continuation of his unpopular rule.

Out of this military reversal, the former Dauphin Louis Antoine, Duke of Angouleme, restored Bourbon rule at the reluctant acquiescence of the Chamber of Deputies. Given the fact that he was childless, the reason for this surprising move soon became clear when a personal union was declared with the Kingdom of the Sicilies. Under these arrangements, the son of Ferdinand II would marry into French nobility and become the Bourbon monarch in 1861. This powerful combination would frustrate both Garibaldi's plans to unite the Italian peninsula and Bismark's dream of establishing a Second German Reich, not to mention Napoleon's nephew's political ambitions in Paris.

By the centennial anniversary of Waterloo, it was clear that France was once again master of continental Europe. Feeling strong enough to make a second move against Graham Island, the French Navy launched a naval assault in 1915. Due to the interventions of the Bourbon Empire, London was prevented from allying with powerful states such as Italy and Germany whose national ambitions had been thwarted. Instead, Great Britain had to hastily assemble a coalition of forces in the German Federation, Italian states, and potentially in Eastern Europe to confront this belligerent power grab. The liberal MP Edward Grey unenthusiastically remarked "The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

Author's Note:

In reality, the island sank after five months and is currently twenty feet below sea level.