Music Video: Vanguard of the Tripartite Fleet

In covering the 2nd French Intervention in Mexico, we've gone back to the origins with music videos about President Juarez's moritorium on the debt, and Emperor Napoleon III's motives for intervening. The next step seems obvious: the Tripartite Fleet!

After the Mexican civil war known as the Reform War, the Mexican economy was in ruins, and Juarez declared Mexico was pausing payments on its foreign loans. This caused anxiety in Europe. The British government was under political pressure from voters who had counted on lucrative Mexican interest rates to fund their retirements. The Spanish economy was also at risk. And the French bankers were holding debts, perhaps fraudulent, perhaps predatory, for loans obtained by Mexico's previous government (the side that lost the war).

In what was seen at the time as an encouraging sign of European unity, Great Britain, France and Spain agreed to the Convention of London, which declared their intention to seize Veracruz (where the Mexican customs house was located) as security on the debt, while renouncing further territorial claims.

Thus was born the Tripartite Fleet. The three nations sent their naval expeditions to Veracruz, which arrived separately.

The first to arrive were the Spanish, as they were based nearby in Cuba. Unlike in previous foreign landings at Veracruz, this time the Mexican government chose to withdraw in the face of Spanish strength. On December 17, 1861, the Spanish flag flew over Veracruz, putting Spanish general Juan Prim in charge of the intervention – being the first to arrive, with 6,000 soldiers. (The initial French force was 3,000 soldiers, and the British force was entirely naval.)

I wanted to fit all of this into a song from the viewpoint of General Prim, and worked with Gemini to come up with these lyrics:

Vanguard of the Tripartite Fleet

Verse 1

The limestone walls of San Juan are cold beneath my hand
I am the first to plant the flag upon this burning sand.
We march for global order and the credit of the banks,
To keep the gears of commerce moving through our steady ranks.
I led the troops from Cuba’s shore, the vanguard of the Crowns
To show the world that Spanish claims will never be put down.

Chorus

Oh, I am Juan Prim y Prats, the Lion of the Reus
We’ve come to hold the city and to see the debts produced.
Three banners in the wind shall fly to settle every score
To walk the line of treaty and to guard the custom’s door.
The debt is owed in silver, the debt is owed in gold
And we will stand together, three nations brave and bold.

Verse 2

I scan the gray horizon where the English masts will rise
Commodore Dunlop’s cannon-smoke will soon sting Mexican eyes.
And with him comes the Admiral, the fleur-de-lis in tow
The tricolor of France to reinforce a martial show.
We’ll stand as an alliance, a grand and grim display
To force the hand of Juárez and to make their nation pay.

Bridge

The camp is set at the coast, for I seek no mountain climb,
To judge the heart of Juárez and give diplomacy time.
The London pact has bound us to a single, steady goal:
To keep the peace of commerce and to take back what they stole.
A sovereign land must answer when the Great Powers come to call
We stand beneath our colors, and we stand together tall.

Verse 3

The fleet is gathering in the mist, a forest on the sea
A triple-headed hydra in a show of unity.
There is work for every soldier, there is work for every gun
Until the papers are signed and the heavy task is done.
Let the world behold the union, let the talking now begin
To bring the law of Europe to the rebel hearts within.

Outro

Let the anchors drop in the harbor…
Let the tripartite demands be heard…
The Lion and the Eagle and the Union Jack
will not be cheated by a rebel nation
We stand together for justice.

Historical Notes

"San Juan" is the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz harbor.

Juan Prim first rose to prominence as a war hero during the First Carlist War. Becoming involved in politics, he became Count of Reus, then became Marquis of los Castillejos after leading Spanish forces in Morocco. Appointed Captain-General of Cuba, he combined military and political prestige.

When the lyrics were written, Gemini assured me that while the Spanish troops landed in December 1861, General Prim did not land until January 1862. That seemed odd to me, so I asked Gemini again – it has now changed its 'mind', and says it does not know when Prim landed!

"I seek no mountain climb" – A poetic way of saying Prim had no interest in marching into the Mexican interior. Theoretically, Spain had a motive for Mexican conquest, to regain what had been lost. But practically, Spain at this time was no longer a world power. It needed the debt repaid, not a costly colonial adventure.

Making the Music

Sonauto had a pronunciation problem with 'Juan Prim y Prats, the Lion of the Reus', so it became 'Wan Prim E Prots, the Lion of the Roose' And 'fleur-de-lis' became 'fleur-de-lee', 'Juarez' again became 'Warrez'

The Gemini AI suggested three possible music styles, and what worked in this case was:

19th century Spanish military march, orchestral, prominent snare drum roll, majestic trumpets and trombones, disciplined tempo, 110 BPM, male baritone vocal, formal, grand, historic.

And the music tags which the AI selected based on that were simply 'symphonic rock, operatic pop, spain'.

Eventually, the AI produced a song which I thought appropriate to the subject.

Making the Video

I've begun to have problems with Nano Banana wanting to make textual charts rather than just art. So I have to 'argue' with it. It was also tricky to get the AI to put everyone where I wanted them in the shot, and to eliminate one soldier I thought looked a bit dodgy. I never did get the AI to turn around the one guy with binoculars looking in the wrong direction!

I then cropped and enlarged the art, and used another AI, Flux Klein, to improve the quality for the final version.

Caption files were created for English, French, German, Spanish and Tagalog.

The final step was to combine the music with titles, using ClipChamp:

I've posted the video as a reel on the TMP Facebook page. On any other week, its viewer numbers would have made it #1, but it had stiff competition from Editor Gwen's video and a pirate song! More than half of the views have been from outside the wargaming community… and for some unknown reason, we got a lot of Hungarian viewers on this one, which has never happened before!