Introducing the Three Wise Men

The Latin American Wars of Independence tend to get ignored in English-language alternate history, for the simple reason that most of the best literature about them is probably written in Spanish. Which is a shame, because they have an enormous number of Great Men in their ranks. Bolivar. San Martin. And my favorite, Bernardo O'Higgins, founding father of Chile - not so much for anything he did, but because he has such a wonderfully implausible name.

Wars of Independence happen in Andalusada too, during the breakdown of Umayyad Seville - but obviously not the same ones, because by the time the wars Spanish history is 700 years gone. There are still going to be lots of Great Men in the histories of those wars; Yusuf I is one of them.

In Cabralia, by sheer coincidence (and authorial fiat), the greatest of those Great Men shared an unlikely set of names that leads to them being internationally known, in all languages, as "the Three Wise Men." This is their introduction.

Kaspar: the father of Cabralia

Kaspar was an ethnic Prussian, although his parents were expatriates and didn't pass on the language (he grew up speaking Low German instead.)

• Kaspar became a Portuguese naval officer, eventually leading to his assignment to Cabralia. (That's as compelling a reason as any for what a Pomeranian's doing in Cabralia.)
• Immediately after independence, the Cabralians had only the most tentative idea about how to set up a government. (It doesn't help that some of the Brazilian founding fathers probably did have noble titles themselves, which they were loath to abandon.) The idea of an electoral monarchy was floated; in the end, Kaspar pleaded republicanism and refused any formal ennoblement. Instead, he adopted the title of Grand Prince (appealing as precedent to the Latin princeps senatus.)
• A few inevitable early-republican crises later, Grand Prince Sansinger essentially established that the position he'd been elected to was held for life, leading to the first round of serious crises, led by...

It bears noting that even though the G.P. of Mexico also wound up with a Sansinger in charge, Kaspar wasn't related to him by blood. (With that said, they are related by marriage now, consolidating the House of Sansinger as a legitimate New World dynasty.)

Baltazar: the grandfather of the CRC

Cabralia may have had Three Wise Men, but only one of them was native to Cabralia. That one was Baltazar, born a Portuguese subject on the northern pampas. He survives today as the namesake of Balthasaria, the grandfather of the CRC, and the single biggest reason why the Portuguese New World isn't a powerhouse on par with the UCNA.

• Baltazar was, originally at least, a supporter of Kaspar and the republican government. The rise of the House of Sansinger pretty much ended that forever.
• Baltazar's breakaway republic (which was probably renamed "Baltasaria" within his lifetime) was originally quite true to his republican ideals; he actually did have free and fair elections, and actually did win them pretty legitimately. It bears noting that Baltasar's political ideals didn't rule out cults of personality; for most of his life, he was the state. Balthazarism is probably a recognized term, on par with "Bonapartism" (at least in the Marxist sense.)
• Eventually, of course, Baltazar's luck ran out, when the Grand Principality took over a fair chunk of what we know as Paraguay IRL. Very likely, for the sake of his legend, he had the good luck to die with his boots on and make it a truly Pyrrhic victory for the Brazilians. His sudden death collapsed his cult of personality, which destabilized the breakaway south.

Baltazar's probably the hardest to judge objectively; the man pioneered the political cult of personality, and his was the oldest established. Even modern-day Baltazarians, who consider him their founding father, are probably able to bless and curse him in the same sentence.

Melchior: the grandfather of Gran Peru

Melchior was Swiss, for the simple reason that most of the historical Melchiors that come to mind are Swiss. Very likely he was a devout Farrellite, working in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country. His contribution was to introduce Swiss political values (direct democracy and binding verbal agreements) to the Andes.

• Garibaldi was identified with his red shirt; Melchior, with a harlequin-pattern scarf. Diamond patterns become closely associated with Gran Peru, the way bowler hats are with Bolivia IRL; it's so iconic that the modern flag of Gran Peru adopted the diamond pattern to make it less square and more like a proper flag. (If the Wiphala and the Rautenflagge mated, their child would be in the ballpark.)

Alas, I know the least about him, so I'm going to leave that for expansion later.

This is a stub. All three of the Three Wise Men will eventually have their own pages, at which point this will be reduced to an introduction rather than the exposition it is now.