Alternate History Thread III

[Lord_Iggy]

It's more Appalachian... although it's the closest Civ3 equivalent, like Aztecs are to Mexico or Romans are to Italy.

 

[Israelite9191]

The Iroquois did have territory in part of S.E. Canada IIRC. I also believe they were north and east of the Appalachians.

 

[North King]

The Iroquois, depending on who you ask, extended on both sides of the border, yes.

 

[das]

In any case, its a traditional Canadian colour. So lets keep it.

In other news - this and other posts, I hope, indicate that you do not quit NESing?

And to make this at least 1/3 on-topic, am working on the British Revolution althist, the more violent part of it is finished and all I have left to do now is a 1780 snapshot.

 

[North King]

In any case, its a traditional Canadian colour. So lets keep it.

*shrugs* Given butterflies, I almost never actually have to put Canada on a map.

In other news - this and other posts, I hope, indicate that you do not quit NESing?

That's still on tenterhooks.

EDIT: Wow. I believe that's the first time I've used that word in common conversation.

 

[das]

As of 1770, Europe's great powers have mostly - but not completely - recovered from the Seven Years War; none of them had to support so many operations and on such scale as Britain, although Prussia and to a lesser extent Austria had suffered from the war directly. Nevertheless, the worst of the war-time damage was by now repaired, and Prussia succeeded in partially negating its manpower losses by encouraging immigration. As already said, however, most of the great powers have recovered, but not enough to try and go for a revision. For a variety of reasons, most powers chose to concentrate on domestic reforms and to work cautiously to maintain the balance of power. A notable exception was Russia - it was at its peak right now, while its neighbours were forced to tread carefully or suffer; Poland was for all purposes a puppet state, Prussia and Austria both curried favour with St. Petersburg, Sweden was apparently docile under the pro-Russian "Caps" (as opposed to the aggressive "Hats") and immersed in petty intrigues, and the Ottoman Empire, foolhardily trying to "stand up to the Man" (ignoring the fact that Russia was ruled by a woman at the time), protested Russian subjugation of Poland, declared war, won some tiny local victories, and then got thrown back and forced to fight for its life as the best army in Europe poured into Moldavia, while one of Europe's biggest fleets sailed into the Aegean, raised some Greek rabble and sunk the Ottoman fleet. Russia's other neighbours were wary, Kanzler Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz even urged Maria Theresa to ally with the Turks to try and stop the Russian advance, but the Empress was opposed to any alliance with the infidel, while her other advisors were either in agreement with her or were way too scared to act in such an admittedly-rash manner. In any case, the Russians seemed to have bogged down back in 1770. Elsewhere in Europe peace reigned.

Yet its reign was as stable and assured as that of George III in Britain; as superficial as Britain's might. Peace in Europe was built on the balance of power, achieved after a series of wars left all the great powers - apart from, as mentioned, Russia - weakened to more or less the same extent, strong enough to defend themselves and some of their interests but too weak to push forth their agendas aggressively and make any bid for hegemony or even for a real advantage over its enemies. This most notably applied to France, which at the beginning of the 18th century wanted ntohing short of world hegemony and was in position to attain it, later, in mid-18th century, worked to become but "the first amongst equals" - yet ultimately failed as well, and now worked to maintain peace and the status quo, lest it change in the favour of Britain, Austria or Prussia. It didn't seem likely to change in a different direction.

But as we know, it did. In 1770, riots and anarchy consumed London and Middlesex, and King George III, having fallen into fatal indecisiveness in this terrible moment, first underestimated the threat and allowed it to grow, then overestimated it, overreacted, in other words - simply panicked, thought that his life was in danger (wrongly - not even the most die-hard SSBRs (Jonh Wilkes' supporters - the Society of the Supporters of the Bill of Rights) and Radical Whigs actually wanted to OVERTHROW the King; most of the rioters simply wanted John Wilkes free and some reforms introduced), and fled into the night with a few retainers and supporters. He raised an army in Windsor, out of various local volunteers and those of the various Guards that followed him out of London or were at Windsor; this was a rag-tag force, but, George III figured, it would have to do. Then he gave that tragic order to march on London; before that order, reconciliation was still possible, no matter what George III thought, although he personally and the British government in general would have lost face. Before the Royalists attacked, after some initial violence the SSBR - now headed by John Wilkes in person - and the Parliament, which virtually discarded Lord North and was for all purposes led by Edmund Burke, had (on the third day of the Revolution) negotiated a truce, and messangers were sent to search for the King and tell him to return. But one of the messangers was the first victim of the Battle of London, caused by a tragic misunderstandment on King George III's part; the loyal Guards were too trigger-happy and paranoid as they advanced into London. As night fell on the city, a confused fight between the SSBR militias and the Guards took place, all the more confused as the Parliament desperately tried to mobilize the army and those Guard regiments that remained in London, now also thinking that Wilkes was trying to overthrow the King, went over to George's side. Blood was shed in the streets of London, and to make things worse, someone used the opportunity to set fire to some of the buildings. After some confused fighting made worse by the darkness and lack of any real central command on either side, the King was driven out, and fled again, this time - for Dover. While London recovered from the Night of the Mad King, the King himself - now indeed increasingly mad, as he had before himself all the evidence of armed rebellion that he falsely thought to be in process anyway - begun conscripting a bigger army, and also wrote letters to his perceived and real supporters. The results were mostly disappointing - the monarchy wasn't all that popular, but Wilkes was. Nonetheless, some Royalist rebellions begun all over England, and provoked Parliamentarist counter-rebellions. Meanwhile, in Scotland, John Stuart, the disgraced 3rd Earl of Bute, rallied the Cameronians and other loyal "North Britons". And in the meantime, the awaited assistance arrived from overseas - Hessian mercenaries and Hannoverian conscripts. George III was very much an Englishman despite his German blood, but he did half-expect the Englishmen to fail him. In that case, Germans would need to be brought in...

Meanwhile, Edmund Burke managed to negotiate some sort of an uneasy compromise between the SSBR and the Parliament; he failed to persuade the former to disband, but John Wilkes was allowed to take his place as MP. Nonetheless, his influence and popularity were on the decline anyway; most people begun to hold him responsible for this chaotic, confusing situation that was beginning to embroil the country. But Edmund Burke, who was now the de facto leader of the Britain, found himself in a very difficult position as well - though highly critical of King George III, he was definitely a conservative - well, as conservative as Whigs went. He was against abolishing the monarchy, but, as George III's children were taken along to Windsor and later to Dover (and were too young anyway), Burke - as the leader of the anti-Georgian, i.e. Parliamentary faction - was forced into the position of fighting AGAINST the monarchy, after a failed attempt to persuade George III to reconcile. To make things worse, there was no solidarity in the Parliament, especially when, after the failure of the negotiations, most of the Tories, including the Prime Minister, moved to Dover or to join the rebels in the countryside. That meant that Burke couldn't play the Tories against the Radical Whigs, and, to prevent further division, had to cooperate with them and to keep their wishes in mind. That eventually drove him, and his fellow MPs, to proclaim the Second Commonwealth and declared George III and the House of Hannover deposed; a constitution was soon drawn up, based on Burke's ideals of parliamentary multi-party democracy. There was no going back for George III after the Battle of London, and as, accordingly, he didn't go back, Burke himself had to cut off his own paths for retreat. The Fourth English Civil War was on.

At the first glance, however, it seemed that it will take three months at most; the forces appeared to be utterly uneven. Most of the people were supportive of the Parliament; and while George III operated with bands of irregulars, innumerous, unprepared Guards and (generally) poor-quality German troops, the professional British army was almost entirely on the Parliamentary side, as was the Royal Navy which soon cut him off from Hessian and Hannoveran reinforcements. And indeed - Bute's ragtag Scottish army was broken and Bute himself captured already at Felkington having barely captured and looted Berwick-upon-Tweed (an atrocity that further damaged George III's support, although neither he nor Bute had anything to do with it), the Royalist rebels were mostly hunted down and forced to surrender as well, and George III was routed at Maidstone by John Burgoyne, returned to military service straight from the benches of the Parliament. The deposed monarch's much-diminished and demoralized army fell back to Dover, and soon enough was put under siege there. Yet George III persistantly and, as it was thought, senselessly refused to surrender.

The truth was, this war was far from over. George III had immediately upon arrival in Dover begun looking for help from abroad; some of it came immediately from Hesse-Hanau, but more was promised by Prussia - at first. But... Friedrich the Great, though confident of victory should his troops actually reach Britain, immediately realized that this might be... complicated, as the ironically-unrenamed "Royal" Navy still dominated the seas. Also, he was generally skeptical of George III's chances of holding on to power. And besides, he had some bitterness against that king for virtually abandoning Prussia in its hour of need. And then there were the logistics... and Prussia couldn't really afford to deploy any serious forces to Britain, could it? No it couldn't, not in this geopolitical situation when Austria might easily take advantage of Prussian distraction. In other words, the Prussians didn't remove any promises, but didn't do anything neither. Which was why, with considerable reluctance, George III turned to the French when he realized that no Prussian help was forthcoming. For Louis XV, this was no doubt a pleasant opportunity...

On several occassions during the correspondence that ensued George III was only kept back from commiting suicide by his religiousness and from abdicating by his pride. Yet though he remained alive and unrepentant, both his religious feeling and his pride as monarch suffered in any case. In exchange for French help, he had to renounce claims on the French throne and promise several concessions in the colonies, most notably the restoration of New France. Though rather naive, George could also already guess that the French would probably demand more after actually restoring him to the throne. But it was either this or even worse ignominy, that of a monarch defeated and exiled, or even executted by traitors and rabble-rousers. So in the end, he agreed. Jubillant, the French monarch ordered Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers, to assemble a Franco-Spanish fleet; and in the meantime, as the siege of Dover dragged on and the war seemed to be over in all but in name, the Radical Whigs and the moderate ones begun clashing again in the Parliament; the violent, aggressive Radicals (or rather their supporters in the SSBR) soon begun agitating amongst the masses and organizing riots; but the worst happened in the fleet. The revolution and the initial chaos worsened the economic situation in the country, and as the navy was increasingly undermaintained anyway, actual wages for the sailors declined accordingly; and meanwhile, as is usual after a succesful revolution, militancy lingered on, and soon enough was turned on the initial revolutionaries as they set dangerous precedent. So Radical agitators easily found fertile ground amongst the sailors, outraged both by the almost-nonexistant wages and by their often-abusive officers; and so, a large part of the Royal Navy mutinied somewhere in late 1770. This, ofcourse, sped up the French plans and guaranteed eventual victory - even as the sailors agreed to stop mutineeing in exchange for payment of wages and amnesty for all involved, the Royal Navy, somewhat disorganized and generally weakened by the incident, came under attack. The parts of the British fleet that didn't mutiny were caught in the Strait of Dover by the French and defeated; the rest were overwhelmed by Franco-Spanish naval forces at Beachy Head, and were either destroyed, either surrendered, either withdrew to port, either fled north. Suddenly the French secured control of the La Manche, and were absolutely free to cross. At this point it is good to remember that despite its numerous problems, the French army was still one of the best in the world...

Louis-Georges-Erasme de Contades' landing at the small town of Dungeness in Kent and the breathtaking campaign that followed (during which Ashford and Canterbury fell and Burgoyne, suddenly cut off from all paths of retreat, soon was forced to surrender as the siege of Dover ended) completely turned the tables on the young Commonwealth. This was not without positive effects; facing popular outcry, the Radicals had to both condemn the mutinies and disband the SSBR and the related militias (which however soon were raised as part of Burke's "Great Militia"), and accept the leadership of the Moderates (as the more mainstream Whigs came to be known). Edmund Burke and several of his supporters and other important British MPs formed a War Council, to coordinate the war efforts, ordering the creation of the Great Militia in all the threatened regions, further conscription and diplomatic efforts. The French, meanwhile, pressed on; as Tory rebels and simple defectors that saw the way the wind was blowing now joined George III, while reinforcements arrived from France, the French continued to advance quickly and defeated another British force at Tunbridge Wells. Soon, London itself was threatened; and in the meantime, another Franco-Spanish force occupied the Channel Isles and the Island of Wight, and moved on to capture Portsmouth; despite fierce resistance, the Franco-Spanish troops eventually overwhelmed militia resistance; still, their casualties were too heavy, and had to be replaced. This new menace tied down the British forces that were supposed to attack the advancing Frenchmen in the rear. Despite the winter that approached by then, Contades decided to get this over with and on the 20th of December attacked London. In the meantime it must be noted that the British diplomatic efforts begun to pay off... for all the good that has done them. Willem V, Stadtholder of the United Provinces, was persuaded by Burke to ally with the Commonwealth; Willem always was an Anglophile, and also, like all the Dutch, feared the possibility of either Britain or France fully defeating the other. Yet the Anglo-Dutch fleet suffered from coordination issues, and in a series of battles in the Waddenzee and the whereabouts it was defeated, although not destroyed, by the Franco-Spanish fleet. Which was why the French were free to land even more troops in Chatham, some twenty miles to the east from London. The huge city was not going to be easily taken, the militias and the British Army resisted bravely, but now they were attacked from the east as well, and outnumbered, too. Finally, Burke, the War Council, much of the Parliament and a large part of the hastily-raised British military retreated out of the city, falling back towards Birmingham. Some soldiers and militiamen remained to defend London, putting parts of it aflame and sniping French patrols; inevitably, however, de Contades captured the city. Because of its size it proved difficult to control, as did the starving (after some three months of difficult campaigning) French soldiers; they, along with the local mobs, soon begun looting the city, damaging it further. Occasional explosions and fires - some accidental, some organized by the resistance - ensured both that the French stay here would remain difficult and that London would suffer very terribly. In fact, it would take decades for it to come near its old level again...

But I digress. As 1771 begun, a great part of southeastern Britain was in French and Tory (as George III's supporters now came to be known) hands. Whigs (the enemies of George III) retained control and support elsewhere, but now that the tide had evidently turned against them were also suffering from defections and general chaos caused by the flight to Birmingham; this caused reignition of Tory rebellions in Scotland and England, and the growth of ideology-less or self-declared "royalist" banditry. In Ireland, sectarian strife between the Protestants and the Catholics actually died down - but this was bad news, as both the Anglo-Irish Protestants and the local Roman Catholics rallied around Henry Flood, who agitated for reform, and hinted complete separation, although for now revolts were mostly avoided - Flood didn't want to compromise his position too early. In the Americas, France already made some initial moves - agents of the King arrived to secure Quebec (as it was held by forces loyal to the Parliament, the agents just incited major rebellions instead, forging a Franco-Amerind coalition under Gabriel Gosselin that soon forced the British to fall back into New England or Prince Rupert's Land, or some fringe forts that still held out); also, as the British fleet in the region was weak and likewise startled by the sudden beginning of the hostilities, a smaller French naval detachment under Francois-Joseph-Paul, comte de Grasse, struck at the British Carribean colonies, forcing the surrender of several of them - most notably St. Vincent. The Thirteen Colonies (Fifteen if we count Acadia and Newfoundland) remained untouched for now, however. They had problems of their own - Amerind revolts, the War of the Regulation in North Carolina (where, as in the rest of the colonies, loyalty to the Parliament was upheld... resulting in a sudden twist as the rebels allied with George III, who promised to review their grievances), and the debates on seccession or loyalty, and if the latter - to whom (for now, as already said, the colonies remained allied with the Parliament). However, a Franco-Spanish expedition was being planned, and new Tory rebellions were already commencing in the southern colonies. All was quiet in Africa. In India, the situation detiriorated quickly; at French incitement, the Bengal famine of 1770 - and the ensuing British brutality in collecting taxes from those still alive - transformed into a general armed rebellion. Meanwhile, French diplomats worked to forge a coalition between the rebels, Mysore and Maratha; these efforts failed due to Mysore's war with Maratha and formal alliance with the BEIC, but Madhavrao Peshwa indeed soon begun to variously assist the Bengali rebels. To sum up, the British Empire was aflame.

Yet in 1771, a new hope appeared. Edmund Burke was a gentleman and a good diplomat, much unlike that positively disgusting rascal Wilkes; that immediately made his regime much more tolerable to the great powers of Europe. It was clear that with him, business could be done; almost immediately upon French invasion's start, Burkes recruited the assistance of the United Provinces of Holland and the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway (then dominated by the king's physicist and de facto regent (as the king was schizoprenic and otherwise mentally-feeble) Johan Friedrich von Struensee, a great admirer of the British Revolution); but this naval combination was unlikely to be enough after the initial Franco-Spanish naval victories guaranteed the Bourbons naval supremacy. Then Burke turned towards... Friedrich the Great, whom some still expected to attack the Commonwealth. Those who expected that were naive and unaware that no matter how many anti-Machiavellian treatises Friedrich wrote, he still was an admirer of realpolitik, especially in his post-Seven Years War reign. France, which was so recently written off as a spent force, suddenly wrested control over the seas from Britain, and threatened to turn it into a puppet state. From such a position of predominance France could overrun the Low Countries, and from there move unopposed into northwestern Germany... Hannover would also become a French ally in this situation, and that was even more unacceptable. In other words, the Prussian king, wisened by the near-collapse in the Seven Years War, saw that France was in position to claim hegemony again, and had good chances of success. This was unacceptable; this was worse than the Russians (who by now occupied Wallachia as well and were succesfully advancing against the rebel nationalist Confederation of the Bar in Poland) or the Austrians with their pretensions on Bavaria. A coalition against the French needed to be arranged...

Thus the Fourth English Civil War evolved into a new world war; many also merge Britain's separate conflicts in India and the French proxy wars with Russia (French advisors, such as the Polish rebel commander Charles Francois Dumouriez, and diplomats greatly assisted Sweden, the Polish rebels and the Ottoman Empire, and also influenced their moves significantly; all this was largely an effort to prevent Russia from actively intervenning in Germany). On the British side (as of mid-1771) fought Holland, Denmark-Norway, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Poland (meaning the puppet king Stanislaw II August Poniatowski), Palatinate of the Rhine and several other minor German states. On the French side fought Spain, Hannover, the Polish rebels, the Ottoman Empire, the Marathan Confederacy, Mysore (these two were eventually reconciled through French efforts and the British failure to assist Hyder Ali against the Marathas), and several lesser German and Indian states. More joined in later in the war, others dropped out for one reason or another.

Despite the unexpected beginning of the war in Europe in March 1771, France had throughout the year made good use of its unchallenged (the British rebased their weakened fleets in the north, at Sunderland, to regroup and repair) naval supremacy, striking in force against Britain's North American colonies. French fleets and forces finished off the British Lesser Antilles, although an attack on Jamaica failed (both due to attrition and to the heroic efforts of Baron George Brydges Rodney); in the meantime, the Spanish expelled the British "settlers" from British Honduras; a large French expedition captured Newfoundland and reinforced the Quebecois rebels, defeating the remaining British forces there. Several raids against New England's coasts and ports occured, and New York was briefly occupied by French troops that damaged the city badly upon withdrawal; this action was quickly and skillfully exploited by Burke and his numerous American supporters to finally and definitely guarantee New England's loyalty to the Commonwealth. Yet this was not enough in the south; Franco-Spanish invasion forces struck later in the year to assist the Tory insurgents, and despite some resistance that was belatedly organized Georgia and both Carolinas were overran. In Virginia, militias were levied (under one of the prominent local planters, the Seven Years War hero George Washington) and a volunteer force from New England, New York and Pennsylvania was assembled.

Meanwhile, despite negotiations between the War Council and the Irish Parliament resulting in further delay of any rebellion and a general calming of tempers, back in Great Britain the Commonwealth was still under attack. The Scottish rebels were mostly defeated at Glasgow, but Tory bands made good use of British distractions; meanwhile, the French continued to advance. Having finally secured their positions in London and Portsmouth, they advanced, capturing Southampton and Winchester, and winning a significant battle at Reading. Albeit attacks on Oxford and (from the sea) on Norwich were repulsed, these were only half-hearted attacks; the main Franco-Spanish forces were considerably slowed down by unconventional tactics used by the British irregulars, to which the French were completely unaccustomed. Still, they ploughed on, and the defeat at Reading, though not decisive, was still a pretty serious one. When later in the year, the French besieged Oxford, and secured Bedford with new reinforcements, it became clear that radical, desperate measures were needed. After a furious debate, the War Council ordered a mass conscription and requisitions in nearby areas; all resistance to this was declared national treason. Though the War Council's capability for actually imposing this decree was limited, and desertion occured very often, the British army size was doubled by the beginning of 1772.

The French immediately struck against Netherlands, overruning the Austrian ones with comparative ease (Austria had no time to prepare proper defenses there), but stalemating in the United Provinces, despite highly-damaging naval raids; Victor-Francois, 2nd duc de Broglie, decided to leave some garrisons in the occupied territories and strike eastwards, where Prussian Cleves and the Palatinate of the Rhine were overran. Allowing the French to rampage in the west, the Prussians used this moment to invade Hannover. Though much to their surprise there actually were some French troops deployed there after the French spies learned of Friedrich II the Great's plans, the Prussians struck from multiple directions and in overwhelming force, and quickly occupied both Hannover and Braunschweig (which didn't resist, its ruler being a personal friend and comrade of Friedrich II), routing the French and associated forces at Wolfsburg. Later in the year, the first engagement between the primary French and Prussian forces took place at Herne in Westphalia; that battle was indecisive, but the Prussians saw it fit to fall back to Paderborn. In the south, nothing really happened yet, as Austrian forces were deployed in the west, although some fighting did take place around Heidelberg (Palatinal city, but east of the Rhine); the small French occupying force eventually retreated beyond the Rhine. The war was still in the maneuver phase.

No Italian theatre existed; Savoy, Tuscany, the Papal States, Venice and all the minors maintained strict neutrality, encouraged by both Austria and France as the former was fearful that it would naturally be forced on the defensive there (as France was hard to invade over the Alpes, while attacking northern Italy from France was still slightly easier), and the latter was busy enough at other theatres.

Russians (who gave moral support to the anti-French coalition) continued to hunt for Polish partisans, foiling an attempt to kidnap the king, but failing to catch Doumouriez who had taken up the task of reforming the Confederation forces into something more efficient; that took much of the year. Greatest victories were achieved in the south; the thunder of victory sounded as the various forts of Crimea, long thought impregnable, fell one after one to the Russian war machine. This was used by the Mamlukes in Egypt and Iraq to achieve de facto independence, and the Egyptian ruler Ali Bey even conquered Syria in the confusion.

In India, the Marathas, Mysoreans, Bengali rebels and miscellanous minor Indian principalities were, through efforts of French diplomats and Madhavrao Peshwa, united in coalition and soon managed to limit British control to the various coastal and riverine cities as what little control the BEIC retained over the countryside detiriorated; this combined with the bankruptcy crippled the once-mighty company, but its garrisons fought on. Though Bihar, the Northern Circars and several isolated trade posts were lost by the year's end, the British managed to counterattack in Bengal, using superior weapons and organization to rout the rebels and Marathas at Rampur Boalia. It was a pyrrhic victory, but it prevented complete collapse, or at least delayed it.

 

[das]

As 1772 begun, two coups d'etat have suddenly shifted the situation in northern Europe in French favour. Von Struensee and his supporters were overthrown in Denmark-Norway, trialed and executted by aristocratic conspirators led by the king's secretary Ove Huegh-Guldberg, who rescinded Struensee's reforms and left the North Sea Naval League, declaring neutrality (this might have had something to do with French and Swedish threats as well). The other coup occured in Sweden as Gustav III overthrew the pacifistic, complacent Caps and allowed the aggressive Hats to take power. Immediately, Sweden renewed its past trreaties with France, receiving subsidies to rapidly prepare for war; the attack on Russia later in the year was hurried and ill-prepared, but also fairly unexpected, and so the Swedes managed to take Viborg; the overambitious attack on St. Petersburg itself was a disastrous failure, however, and despite continued advances in Karelia, Sweden was already doomed by the loss of a great portion of its naval force. Still, this new theatre proved rather distracting for the Russians due to the threat to St. Petersburg itself. Also, after almost all the remnants of the Dutch fleet were destroyed at Texel in a daring French attack, Willem V was nearly overthrown by Joan van der Capellen tot den Pol, leader of the insurgents who called themselves "the Patriots"; the conspiracy was crushed, van der Capellen fled to France, but Willem V's reign was badly shaken by the defeats in an already-unpopular war.

The Dutch naval defeats and the withdrawal of Denmark-Norway from the war had forced the British to scrap their planned North Sea campaign; the French, though not completely predominant there, now gained an edge over Britain. Instead, despite failing to persuade Portugal to actually ally with Britain (Prime Minister Sebastiro Jose de Carvalho, Marquis de Pombal, was an Anglophile, but above all a pragmatic - any attempts to assist Britain would naturally result in Spanish invasion, and Portuguese survival would not be assured), Burke ordered Richard Howe - newly appointed Admiral of the surviving British naval forces, regroupped and repaired in the previous year - to try and establish a secure line of communication, commerce and possibly redeployment between British America and the British Isles. In a series of naval engagements with the French fleet in the Atlantic, Howe ultimately failed to establish a safe route, but as his fleet mostly survived and won several tactical victories over the French this caused a huge boon to the British morale and also damaged the previously-unchallengeable French naval supremacy. This also thwarted a French invasion of Ireland, causing Henry Flood to finally and definitely accept Burke's proposed compromise, that promised Catholic emancipation and considerable amounts of autonomy for Ireland (though short of actual independence ofcourse).

On the land, the French also faced defeat in England; though the newly-conscripted British army was ill-trained, ill-equipped and difficult to command because of its sheer size, it managed to turn the tide in the crucial battles at Warwick and at Coventry; suffering trully terrible (by the standards of the time) casualties, the British nonetheless forced a French retreat to Oxfordshire, though attempts to displace the Franco-Spanish forces from there had failed and Oxford, ofcourse, fell. To compensate for the defeats in the west, the French again invaded East Anglia, this time attacking both from the land and the sea, and eventually securing much of the region; yet here, irregular warfare and growing attrition were at their worst, grinding away at the Franco-Spanish forces. Though the French were far from defeated, their attempt to knock out Britain had failed, and initiative was beginning to shift...

Yet in Germany, the French pressed on. To Friedrich II's dismay (yet admittedly also partial satisfaction due to sibling rivalry), his brother Prinz Henrich was succesfully outflanked and routed at Salzkotten, near Paderborn; this allowed the French to quickly march into Hannover, assisted by local insurgents. Dissuaded from taking command personally, Friedrich II persuaded Ferdinand of Braunschweig to take command of Prussian forces one last time. The Prussians regroupped and defeated the French at Braunschweig itself, and at Walsrode to the north from Hannover, effectively checking any further French advance; yet Hannover remained in their hands, and duc de Broglie still had large forces at his disposal. The Austrians were more active this year; their troops played a crucial part at Braunschweig, and very late in the year Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon, one of the best and definitely the most aggressive (in the most positive meaning possible) of the Austrian generals, led a highly-ambitious invasion of Alsace; to the surprise of all, it was a success, as most border forts were overwhelmed (not without losses, but von Laudon made good use of his surprise effect), Strasbourg and Mulhause were captured and war was suddenly brought to the French soil. This sudden setback resulted in severe criticism of Louis XV, who remained unperturbed and phlegmatic, but nevertheless ordered comte de Rochambeau to take command of a hastily-conscripted French force groupped with some volunteers and garrisons; von Laudon needed to be stopped, hopefully quickly.

The Swedish distraction and Dumouriez' reorganization efforts allowed the Confederation of the Bar to gain in strenght considerably, most importantly capturing Lodz and Radom; however, General Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov's forces brutally put down another rebellion in Warsaw and retook Radom later in the year; the insurgents were also almost completely crushed in former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in northeastern Poland Proper. To the south, Crimea was finished off and Ochakov was captured, though the heavy casualties there gave the Russians a pause. In the meantime, the Ottoman collapse continued; a counterattack into Syria saw success, but Ali Bey evaded capture and thwarted a conspiracy against himself, while signing a "pact of brotherhood" with the Mamluke rulers of Iraq, who too wanted to expand into northern Mesopatamia (still governed directly from Constantinople) and thus guarantee their safety from the Ottomans before they could recover. With Austria and Prussia safely tied up and France hostile in any case, Catherine II and the War Collegium decided to press on; the Russian Mediteranean fleet in the Aegean proceeded to assist Greek rebellions in the nearby islands, while the Russian forces in Wallachia secured key crossing locations and now only awaited reinforcements. The Ottoman Empire, stagnant, weak, impoverished, with outdated armies and nonexistant navy, attacked in all theatres, was about to enter its agony.

In the Americas this year went on indecisively with skirmishes and raids in Virginia and New France, and Spanish occupation of the Bahamas; in Africa, it was also quiet, as - much like in Italy - neither side felt that there was anything of strategic importance there, and both had concentrated on the aforementioned Atlantic naval battles. India saw indecisive raids and sieges, and a general stalemate; after a failed Mysorean assault on British-held Madras, Hydar Ali ordered far-ranging army reforms with French assistance.

1773 was a decisive year in many theatres; the previous campaigns could seem, in the light of this year's event, to be but a preamble, made in preparation for the grand struggles of this year.

Firstly, let us look on the Americas, where the culminative battles were fought in Virginia. Amerinds, Tories, Frenchmen and Spaniards still failed to outnumber the local militias and conscripts, but they were superiorly-trained and superiorly-led; and Virginian Tories had as good a knowledge of the land, denying that possibly-vital advantage to Washington's militiamen. A major (by local standards) British force was attacked and neutralized at Bedford early in the year; after more skirmishes and an exchange of hit-and-run attacks, the anti-Commonwealth forces attacked Richmond, and despite heroic resistance, eventually captured it; and the finishing blow was landed at Fredricksburg, where another British force was overwhelmed by a well-planned attack, and George Washington himself was taken prisoner. Resistance in Virginia lingered on, but was mostly crushed.

However, as in Britain, the New Englanders and the other "Commonwealthists" organized further conscription, and were bolstered by Whig refugees from the overran territories; they formed volunteer companies, ragtag but often battle-hardened and driven by the craving of revenge and of recovering their lost plantations. The French were meanwhile yet again challenged on the sea, and thus had to scrap their plans for a seaborne invasion of New England; instead, the southern French forces struck into Maryland, and the northern ones tried to attack New England from Canada; but even though the south saw notable Franco-Tory victories at the Potomac and at George Town, the northern campaign became a disastrous failure, largely due to the efforts of Benedict Arnold, a notable volunteer commander, and the Green Mountain Boys in Vermont who, though failing to defend Burlington from the invaders, constantly wrecked havoc on the French supply routes. After Benedict Arnold's forces defeated the tired, undersupplied French troops at Springfield, the Green Mountain Boys grew even bolder, and severed the enemy supply and retreat routes altogether; thus in the end the invaders had to capitulate, and an invasion of Canada was largely prevented by poor coordination and reluctance of the militias to press into French-populated territory, at least while there still were the southern colonies to recapture.

The Commonwealthist fortunes didn't extend to there, however; a Virginian rebellion was defeated, and, though bereft of French reinforcements, the anti-Commonwealth forces in Maryland received more Spanish assistance, with which they captured Baltimore and overran much of Maryland and Delaware. A new British offensive in the Appalaches was persistantly harassed by local Amerinds, and weakened sufficiently for the French to crush it as well, finally securing the French positions in the region. However, further advance was impossible; the Commonwealth had regained its balance here as well, a bit later than in the Metropoly, and was now capable of holding on to its lands, while the French weren't numerous or well-supplied enough to advance further. Thus stalemate prevailed; Canada and the South were firmly in French hands, the rest of the colonies were firmly in British.

Meanwhile, the British Campaign too was being decided. French occupation of East Anglia proved increasingly irrelevant; the French troops there were largely tied down by the constant rebellions. This allowed the main British force, strenghthened by further volunteers and conscripts and led by another hero of the Seven Years War - Charles Cornwallis, who had also excelled in the previous Battle at Warwick - to strike in the direction of London. The French held their ground at Edgehill - only to discover that Cornwallis' main attack came at the lightly-garrisoned Luton; overwhelming all resistance that the French could assemble in his path with superior numbers and ingenious strategems - making especially good use of the Whig partisans - the main British force soon was threatening London itself. A major rebellion commenced within the city as the Whig supporters took to the streets; this tied down many of the French garrisoners, and allowed the British to recapture their capital without resorting to a lenghty siege. Still, London, never in the best of shape during the French occupation, was damaged even further during the British recapture, as both sides did not hesitate to use artillery profusely, and the partisans within also didn't spare their own city as they lit fires, launched explosions and otherwise undermined the French defenses. It is said that it was when Burke heard of the disastrous state of London that he first thought that perhaps moving capital back there wouldn't necessarily be the right thing to do...

In any case, however, this was the definite turning point. Though the French still had powerful forces at their disposal, the lesser army of East Anglia was now cut off from the main army in Oxfordshire; George III's prestige was greatly shaken by the loss of London, although the monarch had been with the main French forces as well; and the abortive invasion of Wales resulted in a bitterly-contested naval battle at Swansea Bay, where in the end the British won, albeit failing to thwart French naval supremacy south of Ireland. With the failure of the Welsh invasion, de Contades had no choice but to retreat southwards lest the British be allowed to severe his supply routes and crush his army altogether. The French succesfully fell back towards Reading and soon were threatening London again, at the price of losing Oxfordshire. Still, as more troops arrived to Dover and East Anglia, there seemingly still was an opportunity to launch one last attack and to recapture London; it was squandered, for this year at least, but the city was semi-encircled and further British advance was checked.

Although the Spanish did succeed in capturing Gibraltar at last this year, and though de Rochambeau did eventually force von Laudon to retreat from Alsace, these were France's only actual victories in Europe this year. The rest of the German campaign went rotten; duc de Broglie, threatened by Austro-Prussian forces, had to vacate Hannover, and though skillfully avoiding Ferdinand's pursuit, was intercepted by von Laudon at Bielefeld; though the Austrians were tired and outnumbered, the French were even more tired - and surprised. In the ensuing battle, duc de Broglie only barely prevented a total rout, eventually rallying his troops to fight off the Austrians. After that however he still had to hastily fall back to the Rhine, conceeding Westphalia as well.

The Russians won a series of key victories this year. The Swedish fleet, badly weakened by the Battle at Kronstadt during the failed attack on St. Petersburg, was finished off at the Alands, and the Russian fleet demonstratively approached and bombarded Stockholm's port; on the land, Vyborg was recaptured. With the situation detiriorating and criticism of his government growing, Gustav III - in any case irritated by the failure of the Hats to grant him greater power as they had promised - turned them into the scapegoats. Their leader, Sr. Axel von Fersen, was easily displaced and exiled, the Riksdag was dismissed and peace with Russia was signed, restoring status quo belle ante - how ever lucrative Finland looked, the Russians were busy elsewhere. In Poland, the Confederation was decisively defeated at Kielce and at Kalisz; the Confederates fled northwards, but the Russians rejected offers of Prussian assistance, fearing that the Prussians might try to hijack Poland, and instead attacked Danzig from the land and the sea. After this, the rebels were eventually cornered and crushed at Oborniki, near Poznan.

While Suvorov was hunting Poles, the greatly-swelled Russian army in the Danubean Principalities crossed the Danube; quite rightly it was still commanced by Peter Rumyantsev Zadunaisky - "Transdanubean" - despite some proposals that the younger, energetic Suvorov be appointed instead. Though old, Rumyantsev wasn't indecisive or procrastinating himself; an energetic commander of much skill, he advanced into western Buglaria, taking city after city and fortress after fortress and crushing all the attempted Ottoman resistance. As the haiduks - South Slav rebels/bandits - grew bold enough to rise up in full force all over the Balkans, the Ottoman military, already decadent, outdated and inefficient, was totally paralyzed and incapable of resisting the onslaught despite the fairly good defensive positions in the Balkan Mountains themselves. Rumyantsev avoided these mountains anyway for the most part; after taking Sofia, he attacked along the Maritsa, putting his supply routes in risk but, as the Ottomans failed to put up sufficient resistance, winning Bulgaria in a single move instead; after the capture of Plovdiv, these Ottoman forces that were holding the mountain passes were bottled up there, and the road was opened to Edirne, but for supplies. In the meantime, the Russian admirals Samuel Greig and Grigory Spiridov reignited the dying Orlov Revolt, shipping supplies to Greek rebels, helping them create a navy and securing most Aegean islands with landing parties; eventually, a particularily daring attack was launched with the help of the Greek equivalent of the haiduks - the klepths - on Athens; the night battle that ensued was far from easy, as Athens had a fairly strong garrison, but it was taken by surprise and eventually it was broken; the Greeks now freely rebelled on both sides of the Aegean Sea. Meanwhile, the main Russian fleet struck north and secured Galipoli, tying down even more Ottoman troops...

This allowed the triumphant autumn campaign of Peter Rumyantsev. Though of little actual significance, it shook the world as much as Mehmed II's activities in 1453. Only now, a different Constantinople-based empire fell with its city; Rumyantsev won yet another of the many Battles at Adrianople - for a little while more, Edirne - and moved to besiege Constantinople, while Samuel Greig succesfully entered the Sea of Marmara, assisting Rumyantsev from there. Though the Janissaries in Constantinople still were a powerful enemy, their defeat was really but a matter of time, especially as the Greeks and the Armenians - led by the Phanariote defectors, once loyal collaborators of the Sublime Porte but now similarily loyal allies of Catherine the Great - rose up within the city in response to the Turkish pogroms provoked by the Greek revolts elsewhere. Eventually, Rumyantsev had placed his shield on the walls of Tsargrad, raised the Orthodox cross on the Hagia Sophia and did all the other symbolical activities planned for such an occassion since 907; the Ottomans were overwhelmed and crushed. This was virtually the end. The Egyptians solidifed their rule over Egypt, the Iraqis advanced northwards and captured Mosul, the South Slavs were rebelling and so were the Greeks and the Armenians, and vladika (prince-bishop) Sava of Montenegro declared independence and extended claims to a wide area. Austrians and Venetians were also eager to get a slice, how ever small, of the Ottoman cake; the former yet again took Belgrade and occupied Bosnia; the latter landed in Albania and Crete. In Anatolia itself, outside of the Graeco-Armenian territories, various Turkish warlords and bands struggled. The last Ottoman sultan, Mustafa III, was taken prisoner and forced to abdicate in exchange for being allowed to go into exile in Edirne. And soon after, the Byzantine Empire was declared reestablished - for now, under the regency of Alexandros Ypsilanti, with whom an agreement was reached by Catherine II.

Immediately, both the Austrians and the Prussians were horrified by the prospect of Russian-dominated Balkans; however, they were busy in the west, and so Catherine was free to ignore all their petty complaints for now. Nevertheless, in the long-term a seeming unwillingness to compromise might turn the Europeans against Russia, and so Catherine decided to announce as concessions what she had intended in the first place. Venice was allowed to keep Crete, Cyprus and Albania, Austria was allowed Bosnia, Herzegovina and northern Serbia including Belgrade. A fairly large, neutral Montenegrin state was created as well (complete with parts of OTL Albania, specifically Shkoder, and OTL Kosovo with other bits of south-west-west Serbia), under the same old prince-bishops. Egypt and Iraq were officially recognized as independent by Russia. A Byzantine Empire was to include merely Anatolia, Armenia, and the parts of the Balkans not yet given to anyone else; that included the Danubean Principalities. All the European nations were allowed passage through the Straits of Bosphorus, although the Byzantine Emperor (or Regent) still retained right to charge dues or to deny passage to his enemies; obviously, the Russian dues were almost obscenely low. Russia only annexed directly Yedisan and Crimea, although it also hinted towards its intentions for Georgia, already a very close Russian ally. All this had served to calm everyone down, at least until Catherine's grandson was born in 1775, quickly named Constantine and declared the Byzantine Emperor (though obviously he couldn't really be sent to Constantinople yet); the Ypsilanti regency continued, but this was officially the beginning of the "Romanusan" dynasty of the revived Byzantine Empire...

Speaking of that empire, ofcourse, it was rather difficult to set it up, especially with the Bulgarian rebellion in 1774. Nevertheless, with Russian assistance the leading Greek and Armenian magnates signed a pact and agreed to work with the Regency, and though the irregular Greek and Armenian warbands were becoming more of a liability now they still were helpful, even as with Russian assistance a new Byzantine army was being set up. Considerably helpful was the Phanariote defection, which meant that in Europe at least the Byzantines easily inherited the old Ottoman bureaucratic network, although it was in need of reform.

Yet even in this year of great victories, not all went well... In a scene resemblant of the Time of Troubles, "Pseudopeter" - a man claiming to be the dead Emperor Peter III - had led the long-dissatisfied, starving and increasingly oppressed serfs and Cossacks of the Urals and the Povolzhye to a great rebellion, rivaling even that of Stenka Razin. Some claimed that Pseudopeter was a Cossack deserter; others, that he was a Polish noble; a popular theory went as follows: this was none other than Charles-Francois du Perier Dumouriez, the infamous French military adventurer, intriguer and master spy; having failed to win in Poland, he, like some other Polish Confederates, launched a desperate strike at Russia's very heart, moving into its key territories to take advantage of the explosive situation there. The situation was confused by the wide variety of accounts of Pseudopeter himself; some indeed described him as an unwashed Cossack, yet others still said that, despite him appearing at first hand to be a fairly simple bandit, he had a barely-noticeable French accent and certainly didn't look like someone who came from the dregs of life. Whoever he was, for four years he shook Russia from Orenburg to Moscow itself, showing indeed great military skill and ingenuity and nearly taking the Third Rome as Rumyantsev took the second. Yet he was eventually defeated by Suvorov in the vital Battle at Ramenskoye, and as the Russian forces attacked and attacked, the rebel army soon disintegrated. Pseudopeter himself wasn't found, dead or alive. Dumouriez would resurface in Paris in 1782, and on one account would claim that after the collapse of the Confederation of the Bar he returned to his usual life of top secret diplomatic missions in the name of the French crown...

In any case, with the apparent stalemate in the Atlantic and the fears of defeat, the French moved to secure British colonies in the Gold Coast as bargaining chips. Meanwhile in India, the war remained inactive, both sides holding on to what they still had.

1774 was the war's last year. In general, it didn't go terribly badly for the French; they failed to take London, but the British failed to take either Norwich or Reading, while the Austro-Prussian invasion of the Rhineland was repulsed. Clearly France was still strong militarily; but it was terribly, terribly weak economically. In decline since Louis XIV, France's economic situation had by now detiriorated badly due to the expenses of the war. Due to the need to supply the French forces, much bread had to be requisitioned - and already in 1773 this resulted in famines and bread riots. France had commited much of its limited resources to the war, and despite some victories, they weren't enough; neither Germany nor Britain were brought to their knees, and the war was turning into a one of attrition. In a war of attrition, France had zero chances of survival at present, as the bread riots of 1773 evolved into often-armed uprisings in 1774. And finally, in March 1774, Louis XV expired; this was immediately used by some particularily discontent military officers to attempt a coup d'etat to put Louis-Philippe, duc d'Orleans, on the throne despite the latter's obvious lack of interest in it; the coup was defeated, but just barely, and France continued sliding into chaos... The new king, Louis XV's grandson Louis-Auguste, was crowned Louis XVI; leaned upon by powerful and charismatic ministers, he was easily persuaded to start peace negotiations and grand far-reaching reforms. Then he was leaned upon by powerful nobles and clerics and easily persuaded to scrap the reform plan, drown the riots in blood, strenghthen the powers of the priveleged and then start peace negotiations anyway. After some more intrigues and battles of influence, some people on both sides realized that perhaps they might as well work together to manipulate the king into saving France; and also, enough nobles were scared by the bloodshed in Rennes as the year went on. Finally, a compromise was reached, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot was appointed comptroller general of finances, and allowed to introduce several reforms, chiefly economic in nature; these and the promises of eventual parliamentary reforms have assured an uneasy peace in France, appeasing the rioters for now. In the meantime, upon negotiations, the Treaty of Brussels was signed. The British Commonwealth was officially recognized, and the Hannoverians had to renounce all claims to it. Nevertheless, it had to grant a wide range of concessions; French territories north of the Great Lakes and west and along the St. Lawrence River were confirmed as French, as was Newfoundland, albeit Rupert's Land and Acadia remained British. The southern four of the Thirteen Colonies were to remain under Hannoverian reign - more on their fate later. Ohio River Valley and the greater Ohio Basin, along with the territories south of the Great Lakes remained disputed territory, subject to future regulation. Florida, the Bahamas, British Honduras and Tobago went to Spain. France was confirmed in control of Guadelupe, Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Granada, but Britain was allowed to keep the rest of its Lesser Antilles. In Africa, James Island was annexed by France, but the Gold Coast was restored to Britain. Minorca and Gibraltar were restored to Spain. Status quo belle ante was restored in Germany and the Netherlands, apart from in Hannover which came under the rule of Ferdinand of Brunswick, reuniting the two greatly-intertied north German states and promoting the Prussian field marshall to the rank of elector. George III was mad, very mad at the way he was abandoned by his allies, but had no choice at all except to do as he was told, and travel with his family and under the watchful protection of French soldiers across the Atlantic Ocean, to become the French satellite king, if not in Britain, then at least in this new "Kingdom of Great Georgia", crafted out of the four southern British colonies. Seemingly grudgingly, France also acknowledged Russia's victories in Eastern Europe... seemingly as in truth, the French diplomats already sensed a great opportunity to provoke a war between the new Austro-Prussian alliance and Russia, and were willing to do their utmost to prevent the tensions from dissipating. No official agreements were yet reached in India, apart from France beign released from the diplomatic binds of the Treaty of Paris (which forced France to support British puppet regimes in India; as most of these fell anyway, and as France ignored the provision from the very beginning, this was merely a formal concession).

Thus (even as the Turkish warlords and the Indian rulers struggled on against their respective enemies - but neither struggle was to last for much longer in any case, the former reduced to partisan warfare by Russian occupation, the latter signing a more-or-less victorious peace with Britain with French intermediation) suddenly it was over - after merely five years of war, a mere sixth of the Thirty Years War. Yet this comparatively short war changed the face of the world just as much as that great, epic first "world war"...

Read on!

 

[das]

Snapshot of the World in 1780.

The disorganized natives of the world remain peaceful and unchanged from the last decade, although this ofcourse is a generalization. There were changes, especially in regions with growing European presence; Russian, British and Spanish traders get ever more involved with the yet-unconquered tribes of northwestern North America; France and Britain stretch out their tentacles of trade and influence further into Africa (these were the peak years of European slave trade) and also begin to infiltrate South-East Asia, taking advantage of the ongoing decline of the Dutch colonial empire (especially now that its navy is chiefly underwater, passive and rotting somewhere off Texel...).

In the civilized nations of Europe, the Industrial Revolution is beginning and picking up speed. Though at first hindered by the British Revolution - we must remember that the Industrial Revolution begun in roughly the same time and place as the political one - in the long term it was perhaps only assisted by it, though not in a way that pleased the British greatly. War, destruction, economical difficulties and political changes drew numerous capitalists and aristocrats alike out of Britain since 1770, and as they spread all over Europe, they distributed with themselves the ideas of Industrial Revolution and various new inventions. In particular industrialization was undertaken by Belgium (see below) and Prussia; to a lesser extent, it was undertaken in France (chiefly due to the prevalence of the Physiocrats and their theories), Spain, Austria and Russia. Ofcourse, one must understand that this industrialization was at the moment mostly limited to the creation of new factories and shipyards, and occasional utilization of other new technologies that appeared at the time.

Another curious trend was that of economic instability - not decline, rather, the opposite, growth, but still - instability, as the recent war and the ensuing political and economic developments greatly unbalanced the existant economic situation, just as much as the balance of power was greatly altered and became even more dynamic and volatile than before. The Five Years War, if I must remind you, had seen Britain, the predominant colonial and commercial power, largely fall from that pedestal, although not as far down as some had hoped and other shad feared; France replaced it as the number one naval power, but itself it was burdened by economic and political woes, and thus failed to properly replace Britain as a colonial power or as an economic one; thus, with neither Britain nor France prevalent, other powers begun increasingly involving themselves in commerce, with hints of future colonialism; in particular, Belgium revived the Ostendische Kompanie, and Friedrich II the Great had used this "vacuum of commerce" to create the "Preussiche Seehandlung", which soon became surprisingly succesful, due to Prussia's various commercial and port use agreements with other northern German states and the several agreements with Britain that, in exchange for Prussian assistance to Britain in case of a war with France entailed British protection for the flourishing Prussian commerce... and potential colonies, curiously enough, though none were established just yet. While Prussia concentrated on Baltic trade and, outside of Europe, on West Africa, Sweden and Belgium, and another recovering colonial/commercial power - Denmark-Norway - had centered their efforts on India. Denmark had not only expanded and developed its Indian HQ of Tranquebar, but also reclaimed Calicut, briefly lost to Mysore. Sweden and Belgium set up trade outposts in Bengal, the British control there still shaken; the Swedes also used the Dutch decline and corruption to violate the previously Dutch-dominated East Indies, and signed a treaty with the ruler of Bantam; a trade outpost was set up in the port of Merak, and the port itself became an important part of the Swedish expeditions to China. Lastly, Russia, as already mentioned, begun to commercially infiltrate northwestern North America, though no colonies were set up yet.

The British Commonwealth had preserved surprisingly large amounts of the territories of the previous Kingdom of Great Britain, although the grand British colonial empire was greatly truncated, especially in North America and India - British predominance in both was broken, and if not forever, then for a long time. Britain's navy, despite its eventual recovery, was regardless relegated to a second rank, lagging behind the grand fleets of the Bourbon Powers; however, great efforts were now being put towards the reconstruction of the fleet. For this purpose, great modern shipyards were set up, serving as inspiration for similar shipyards to be built by France, Spain and Sweden. In domestic politics, Edmund Burke remained Prime Minister; and as such, he had managed to continue his reforms, turning the British Commonwealth into a federalized parliamentary democracy (OOC: a mix of OTL Third French Republic due to the ceremonial, popularily-elected position of President, 19th century Britain due to the parliamentarism and the two party system (liberal Radicals and conservative Moderates) and late 19th century USA in its more-or-less stable federalism). The capital remained in Birmingham; London was at the same time too damaged and too "obsolete", while Birmingham was a rapidly-growing industrial and commercial center, not to mention its fairly central position and distance from French-threatened shores. A plan was drafted up for the gradual integration of the remaining North American colones into the Commonwealth. The economy recovered quite quickly, both due to the industrialization and due to the collapse of Dutch competition at least (the latter was exploited as the British begun to infiltrate Dutch East Indies economically to compensate for the loss of most of India; eventually the Stadtholder was even persuaded to sell the port of Malacca for a laughable price, further undermining his position at home). The changing social conditions and increased enfranchisement, along with the decline of the House of Lords in power, caused outrage in aristocratic circles, which however were not nearly strong enough to do anything about it; the more die-hard of the British aristocrats simply fled to civilized, cultured France or barbaric Russia with the great opportunities for foreigners that existed there, or to some other land. Diplomatically, apart from exploiting Willem V's Anglophilia, the British revived ties with Prussia in preparation for future wars with France. Relations improved and trade picked up with Russia. In India, British hegemony collapsed, but Bengal chiefly remained in British hands apart from a few ports grabbed previously and now by other European powers, and Madras and Bombay were also retained, albeit Mysore held on to newly-captured Arcot, one of India's few trully significant overland trade centers. Also, the British cooperated fruitfully with Persia's Zands, though at the price of allowing them to annex Basrah (British merchants retained their privileges there, so it wasn't all that bad).

In France, Turgot's appointment did not mean the end of political turmoil at all. Eventually, he pressed things too far with the abolition of corvee. Turgot was dismissed at first due to the outcry of the nobles, but almost immediately, great rioting and demonstrations commenced; and so eventually an embarassed Louis XV had to allow Turgot back in and accept the abolition of the corvee, as the same nobles that previously pressed him to get rid of that pesky physiocrat were genuinely scared after bluffing for a while. Thus Turgot and other reform-minded ministers (chiefly fellow physiocrats) arose, and Louis XV was persuaded to introduce wide-ranging reforms. The Parlements were re-convened, with the Third Estate having as many (popularily-elected) representatives as the nobles and the clergy taken together (however, the king retained absolute power; he simply had to consult the Parlements before any major action); social reforms and enfranchisement took place; physiocratic economic reforms also took place, bolstering agriculture, especially in Normandy, and also exporting the products thus attained to a wide range of countries; this assisted a general economic rebounding and even prosperity. However, if anything it made the political situation only worse - encouraged by political and economic successes, the Third Estate grew increasingly assertive and agressive, and hungered for more power, and greater reforms, especially those that would wreck the power of the seigneurs. Particularily controversial was the issue of land reform, which was debated almost violently throughout 1779 and 1780 - to no result. As agitation continued to build up, fear emerged on both sides that the other side will seek to break this stalemate by decisive, non-parlementary action, and on both sides such people appeared that thought it necessary to act fast in order to preempt this reaction/revolution. Although at the time largely consumed by internal reform and political instability, France also continued to lead a somewhat-emboldened foreign policy. Though the Austro-Prussian coalition proved surprisingly strong, French diplomats made inroads in Russia; at the same time, ofcourse, they worked with the Swedes, the Polish nationalists and the Mamluke Sultanate of Egypt. In India, a Franco-Mysorean alliance was concluded, and French influence partially revived, especially in the Coromandel Coast where several old trade posts were restored. In Africa, French presence grew in Madagascar. In the Americas, colonization of New France resumed, and the laughingstock of Europe, Kingdom of Greater Georgia, nonetheless survived the initial rebellions and conspiracies, and at the same time avoided becoming anything else but a French puppet, with French military presence and trading priveliges and growing French communities.

While France and Britain had their political and economic conflicts, Spain was undergoing a general renaissance. Carlos III had consistantly assisted reformer ministers to bring Spain out of decline. Economically, even as Catalonia's brief boom of the 1740s mostly ended, Cadiz now greatly ascended due to the trade with Greater Georgia and Spain's own colonies; there, imperial reform had worked miracles, almost tripling Spain's income as a new, more effective and rational colonial administration was set up, incentives stimulated greater development, threat of British commercial conquest disappeared and, last but not least, considerable territorial expansion was achieved. Spain had begun colonizing the Louisiana, and also expanded its claims north into California and east into the Ohio Valley. Meanwhile, from the recaptured peak of Gibraltar, some Spanish politicians looked at Morocco; it could make a nice addition to Spain's grand Atlantic empire... In Spanish diplomacy, however, no major changes took place - the Family Compact still ruled supreme, especially as finally it seemed to pay off with the Perfidious Albion forced to return so many stolen territories.

Under Maria I, Marquis de Pombal fell from grace and power in Portugal. But Portugal itself continued its free-fall from both grace and power, its colonial empire and economy largely stagnant in spite of all efforts and the relations with Britain jeopardized first by de Pombal's fear of Spanish invasion and then by Maria I's dislike of the British Revolution, though tempered by Burke's conservatism.

Denmark-Norway, though reactionary in ideology, continued to progress and prosper; as already mentioned, its Indian empire underwent a revival. Reconciliation with Britain was not achieved; however, an alliance was signed with Russia, which allowed the Danes to officially annex Holstein-Gottorp (the homeland of the short-reigned Emperor Peter III).

In Sweden, Gustav III restored absolutism and decided to stay out of foreign entanglements after the failed war with Russia, not counting the Swedish East India Company's awakened colonialism (previously it was merely a trading enterprise). Instead he concentrated on domestic development, patronage to arts and sciences
and industrialization; Sweden's ironworking industries expanded considerably, and so had export. In general, it was a time of prosperity for the Swedes, though the Finnish issue remained unresolved, with great support for independence under Russian suzerainity there and the formation of Finnish separatist secret societies similar to those emerging in France.

In Germany, the Austro-Prussian alliance remained surprisingly endurant; for long arch-enemies, Friedrich II and Maria Theresa had suddenly reconciled, much as the latter disliked it (that decision was probably in part caused by her son and co-ruler Josef II, an admirer of "the evil man in Sanssouci"). While the Austrians dropped claims to the Prussian-annexed parts of Silesia, and allowed Prussia's Brunswickan allies to take over first Hannover and later Oldenburg, the Prussians turned the blind eye towards Austria's dealings with Karl Theodor, the Wittelsbach Palatin of the Rhine who got Bavaria to immediately give it to the Austrians; in exchange, he received Austrian Netherlands (Louis XVI was not amused) and Luxembourg, and allowed to style himself "King of Belgium" (he wanted Burgundy, but the Austrians were fresh out of it), albeit this Belgium remained part of the HRE for all the great meaning that it had (that said, with the Austro-Prussians allied and thus in position to coerce anyone who didn't yet befriend them, the HRE was turning into, if not an united nation - far from it, in fact - then at least a grand alliance and trade block). The Kingdom of Belgium included the rest of Karl Theodor's realms - as such it consisted of five distinct parts, separated by various petty bishoprics: the Netherlands (or the Flanders), the Luxembourg, the Palatinate, the Cologne and the Julich. These were ofcourse very loosely-knit, but Karl Theodor had all intentions to bind them closer together. He did have some problems working with the Flemings themselves, but as he allowed them to revive the Ostendische Kompanie, they concluded that this king they could work with.

Meanwhile, even as Austria and Prussia remained allied - it must be noted ofcourse that this strange alliance was a one born of fear of French revival and Russian ascendance - both followed their own disparate paths. While Prussia in Friedrich the Great's later years industrialized and entered the greater trading world, Austria, under the duumvirate of Josef II and his mother Maria Theresa, concentrated on reform in their wide and growing realms. Industrialization took place in Bohemia; elsewhere, the Austrians often tried to mimick the succesful French physiocratic reforms. Internal customs were greatly decreased as well. Gradual emancipation of serfs took place as well. Public education took place, and schools were established all over the Habsburg realms. Administrative reforms were extremelly limited however. In foreign policies, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz' star was rising; his initiatives were working perfectly, and the ruinous Austro-Prussian dualism turned into the nigh-unstoppable Austro-Prussian duumvirate. Though alas both France and Russia remained unchecked, the former was blocked in the north at least by the remaining Austro-British, Austro-Dutch and ofcourse Austro-Belgian agreements, while inroads were made in Stockholm for possible cooperation against Russia.

In 1780, Maria Theresa died, and Josef II took full power. Unlike his generally-cautious mother, Josef II immediately embraced even greater reforms verging on radicalism...

In Italy, the Enlightenment - with the slightest of delays in regards to the rest of Europe - had also begun to influence reforms greatly. Josef II launched reasonably-succesful physiocratic experiments in Tuscany, most notably. The Kingdom of Naples meanwhile aligned itself with the Bourbon Powers - being ruled, after all, by a Bourbon king - and also launched reforms more similar to those in Spain. As part of the grand Bourbon Mediterranean strategy, and also as part of the influence of the English expatriate John Acton who soon rose in power in Naples, a fairly strong fleet was built up, and plans were made for expeditions in North Africa. The Papacy had also largely aligned itself with France, and Pope Pius VI even experimented with some reforms, which however didn't really go far. In general, the Papacy was in crisis, as even the Catholic powers increasingly turned towards their local, obedient clerical authorities, and so the Pope had no choice but to seek an ally, and France seemed like the better option at the time. Genoa remained weak and declining, while Venice, though the same largely applied to it, nevertheless underwent a minor cultural and general renaissance, befriending Russia and benefitting from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, and also establishing some commercial presence in Egypt. Lastly, Savoy, the Prussia of Italy, had continued its indeed very Prussia-like militarization and openly allied with Austria and Prussia.

Russia, despite the Pseudopeter Uprising, remained predominant and imperious in the east. As such it was put into the position of Louis XIV's France, to a certain extent, except Russia was already in a predominant position through its control over Poland and Byzantium and, for the most part, saw no need to aggressively push for further gains. Nonetheless, it still won enemies; the Russo-Byzantine forces clashed inconclusively with the French-reformed Egyptian army, while on the other side its old allies, Austrians and Prussians, have indeed reconciled, and on several occasions pushed for the partition of Poland, which ofcourse was denied, especially as long as Catherine was capable of playing on Maria Theresa's extreme dislike of any such a partition. Russia did involve itself in some foreign expansion in the Caucasia, working in accord with the allied Georgia against the local tribes, greatly weakened and demoralized by the Ottoman collapse and thus partially subdued (mostly in Dagestan; the Circassians continued their foolhardy resistance). Domestically, Russia concentrated on the colonization of its more direct southern gains; great incentives were offered to landowners that would settle in "New Russia" (including lands from the Dnieper to the Don and to Circassia) with their serfs. Thus rapidly the Tartars there were overwhelmed, and great prosperity and development took place. The ports of Theodosia and Sevastople in Crimea greatly flourished from the trade with the Byzantines and through the Straits - with Italy. Major administrative reform took place; also, a new code of laws was created, inspired by some ideals of the Enlightenment, and at the same time emphasizing the need for autocracy. Some half-hearted efforts were made to abolish serfdom, but not much came out of this.

Russian satellites developed quite differently from one another; while Poland was in deadlock of reaction and Russian-enforced government inefficiency (and that is all that needs to be said - these were times of quiet accumulation of anger in Poland, in between the violent rebellions), the Byzantines, by contrast, reformed rapidly. Though subjected to Russia in foreign policy, the Regent made sure to retain independence in domestic policy, and there introduced major administrative and legal reforms, coupled with some economic experementation (not very bold, though). The Byzantines however were constantly burdened by regional-conservative rebellions and conspiracies, the worst coming in Turkey where the Byzantines encountered expectable opposition in almost every valley. Though attempts were made to reconcile with the Turks through promises of religious tolerance, this didn't work; consequently, large Russo-Byzantine forces were tied up for the remnants of the decade by the need to pacify valley after valley, often resorting to great bloodshed. Admittedly, things weren't all that bad; almost everywhere there was at least a minor Greek and/or Armenian presence (sometimes hidden - the crypto-Christians now reemerged from the hiding en masse, and a plenty of them were in truth recent converts pretending to be long-opressed crypto-Christians now free at least to curry favour), and on those minorities the Byzantines could always rely. Still, it took up much of the young state's resources. Small, backwater Georgia saw little change, if we don't count an influx of Russians and some territorial expansion.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire resulted in a considerable destabilization of North Africa, especially the Maghrib which now lost its protector, although it was yet to suffer the consequences aside from a few minor anti-pirate expeditions. Morocco remained mostly unperturbed, and indeed was undergoing one of its most stable periods. Egypt was ofcourse pretty chaotic, especially after Ali Bey's sudden death; after a three-year civil war, Murad Bey came to power and aligned Egypt with France to counteract the Russo-Byzantine alliance; despite his Mamluke roots, Murad Bey soon begun to work on the creation of a modern, European-trained force loyal only to him. With its help he conquered Hejjaz and defeated all the discontent Mamluke and Syrian tribal rebels.

In Segu, Ngolo Diara restored peace and stability after a period of post-Mamari Kulibali civil wars, mostly concentrating on enforcing central authority. In Ethiopia, by contrast, the Age of the Princes was ongoing with lots of feudal and tribal chaos and total absence of any real central authority, emperors but puppets of the noble warlords of both faiths marching back and forth. In the rest of Africa, not much happened of any real note... although the Dutch colonial authorities did increasingly clash with the Xhosa chiefs in the Suurveld.

Mamluke Iraq struggled to maintain stability and prosperity, but it was badly torn due to internal strife, both between the different Mamluke factions and between the Georgian-born Mamlukes and the Iraqis themselves; also the Shiites in Iraq were having sectarian strife with the Sunnis. In the end, this was all exploited by Karim Khan Zand, who rather originally titled himself "Vakilol Ro'aya" instead of "Shah", but nevertheless was an absolute ruler. His main policy was that of taking over the Persian Gulf commerce (he even moved his capital to Shiraz - an inland city, yet a key trade center with great ties to Persia's slowly-rising coastal middle class); he cooperated fruitfully with the British, and, receiving their acceptance, moved to occupy the key Iraqi port of Basrah. That ofcourse caused a political crisis in Baghdad, which turned into civil war; the rest was a walkover, and Karim Khan Zand confirmed for himself the title of "the Great", having soon conquered Iraq, restored order there and thus extended Persia westwards considerably.

In India, European infiltration was set back, but not destroyed at all; if anything, it soon rebounded. Nevertheless, several major native states ascended, and, through various administrative and military reforms and well-managed diplomacy, proved capable of stopping or at least slowing down the European infiltration. The foremost of these states was ofcourse the Maratha Confederacy, ruled by the hereditary chief ministers - the Peshwas. Now ruled by Sawai Madhava Rao Narayan, the Maratha Confederacy was perhaps at its strongest in Central India; on the other hand, it also stagnated and was surrounded by pretty strong native opponents. The Afghan Durrani Empire, though also stagnant and in decline - and suffering from the ominous Sikh uprisings that had secured several Punjabi cities - still was a noteworthy power in northern India, and the Maratha attempts to expel Timur Shah from Punjab altogether had failed. The Marathas were more succesful in wars with the Rajputs, as the key Rajput state Bharatpur continued its decline. In the south, Maratha's main challenger, Mysore, greatly expanded, having created with French assistance a powerful war machine and used to finally defeat the other strong south Indian state (and thus Mysore's natural enemy), Travancore, which was now vassalized and forced to make far-reaching territorial concessions. Further bolstered by France, Mysore once more begun to eye the southern Marathan possessions...

Even as the Europeans begun to increase their infiltration of South-East Asia, political instability and downright social enthropy ruled in Indochina; and nowhere more than in Vietnam, struck by the civil war between the popular "Tay Brothers Rebellion" and the decadent Later Le dynasty.

In China, the Qianlong Emperor ruled on and on, defeating rebels and gradually allowing an increase in trade, especially with Britain and Sweden. For now, China was prosperous and stable, but the seeds of future woes were already there...

Japan, meanwhile, too had remained mostly closed to the world - and it had more than enough problems of its own anyway, with natural disasters, famines and peasant rebellions. Nevertheless, European powers - especially Russia - were increasingly insistant on Japan opening up...

This was the world after a storm that somewhere perhaps went nearly unnoticed, but that would, in due, affect even Japan, and even the smallest and most isolated little island in the Ocean. All that was needed was time...

 

[Israelite9191]

Spectacular! I must however criticize some rather obvious grammar problems. You consistently use "overran" where you should use "overrun" and confuse "begun" and "began." Similarly, you use far too many semi-colons and your sentences are extraordinarily long. Although, due keep in mind that the only reason I criticize your grammar is that I can't criticize your history.

 

[das]

Slip-ups such as this are inevitable; and yes, I know about the semi-colons.

 

[Israelite9191]

I know they are, especially for someone for whom English isn't a first language. Really, I am stunned at the ability of yourself and so many others to learn English so proficiently. Again, bear in mind that I criticize your grammar only because I can't criticize your history. I would also like to make a suggestion. After you finish writing, go back over your work and cut out 30% or more. It may be incredibly hard to do so, but it is always to the better. I used to have the exact same problem (over-abundance of run-on sentences) when I adopted this technique. Believe me, it works miracles.

 

[Reno]

A cut version of a 'das timeline'? Das' timelines are great because of the great length and detail in them.

@das Great work as usual. Although, I'm a bit sad that if Finland becomes 'independent' in this timeline it will most likely become a Russian vassal, and that's something I'm not too keen on seeing.

 

[das]

Really I'd much rather have you criticize the history; advice on grammar will be taken into account, ofcourse, but I don't promise any "cut" versions - at best I will do a summary at some point.

And Reno, that's the problem with being hemmed in between Sweden and Russia. But if it helps I don't think Finland will get independence at all.

 

[Reno]

But if it helps I don't think Finland will get independence at all.

If someone starts a NES out of that, I'll correct that problem.

 

[Israelite9191]

I do have one query now that I think about it. Why does Virginia fall so easily in TTL? They held little loyalty to the king, where incredibly loyal to their state, had the most wealth probably of any of the colonies, etc., etc.. They also had George Washington, who in OTL defeated the most powerful nation on earth (admittadly with the aid of Benjamin Franklin's diplomatic genius and the training of von Steuben). I admit my knowledge of the era is doubtful at best, but I would like an answer as to this.

 

[Disenfrancised]

Nice timeline das. I still think Britain would have a much faster industrial revolution than anywhere else due to its geographic advantages of generous and easily accessable coal deposits and the closeness of all points to the sea cutting down on transport costs when compared with continental europe. Ideas diffusion would see eveyone reaching the same level, but Britian would get there faster *shrug*.

 

[Insane_Panda]

They held little loyalty to the king, where incredibly loyal to their state, had the most wealth probably of any of the colonies, etc., etc.. They also had George Washington, who in OTL defeated the most powerful nation on earth (admittadly with the aid of Benjamin Franklin's diplomatic genius and the training of von Steuben). I admit my knowledge of the era is doubtful at best, but I would like an answer as to this.

Washington, IMHO, was overrated as a military commander. He was good, but he wasn't great. A main reason why the British failed in the Americas was because they didn't contribute enough forces to deal with the rebellion and didn't deal with it strongly enough. If a foriegn power comes in, commits strongly to the purpose of conquering Virginia, I think it can be done.

 

[Israelite9191]

While I still disagree (seeing as I would highly doubt Virginia would be high on the list in a world war at this point in time) if you have Virginia fall, then why doesn't Maryland? And why not Delaware (I believe they were seperate by this point, though I may be wrong), Pennsylvania, and New Jersey? Of the American colonies, I would think Virginia the hardest to defeat.

On another note, shouldn't there be some kind of revolt in the remaining American colonies in Britain by now? With the extraordinarily high costs of this war, I would think that Parliament would be resorting to taxation of the America colonies as they did after the Seven Years War. I would also think that the colonies wouldn't have representation, seeing as you neither mentioned them having representation nor it making any sense. This together, along with the weakening of Britain and growing colonial nationalism likely to occur after the success of the northern colonies at defending themselves largely without British help, should most certainly lead to a rebellion IMO.

 

[Symphony D.]

Interesting PoD: Private Henry Tandey shoots and kills Adolph Hitler during the First World War. It can go one of two ways, depending on what you want to do with it: the NASDAP either is even stronger, due to having someone more competent in charge (though, finding someone incredibly competent and with great oratory ability is somewhat hard, so they might be less popular) or the movement dies in its infancy and something else entirely happens to Germany.

 

[das]

Why does Virginia fall so easily in TTL? They held little loyalty to the king, where incredibly loyal to their state, had the most wealth probably of any of the colonies, etc., etc..

It was defeated militarilly; I did mention that they put up some good resistance, but ill-trained militias can only do so well against the best army of the Western Europe.

They also had George Washington, who in OTL defeated the most powerful nation on earth

That most powerful nation had a rather weakish land military. There is only so much one commander - no matter how capable - could do against overwhelming odds. Plus he was only in charge of the militias (a key problem for the British Commonwealth was a one of coordination, and it got even worse in the Colonies).

I still think Britain would have a much faster industrial revolution than anywhere else due to its geographic advantages of generous and easily accessable coal deposits and the closeness of all points to the sea cutting down on transport costs when compared with continental europe. Ideas diffusion would see eveyone reaching the same level, but Britian would get there faster *shrug*.

I do agree - however, the rest of Europe is sped up, and Britain is somewhat slowed down. Now however it is quickly compensating that.

A main reason why the British failed in the Americas was because they didn't contribute enough forces to deal with the rebellion and didn't deal with it strongly enough.

And there were many difficulties in actually contributing the forces needed; I already mentioned Britain's various political and economic woes at the time, and its land military, again, was sub-par at the time. Also agree about Washington; his odds are also quite overrated, as the American rebels had an advantageous strategic position from the start, AND the support of several European powers, whether open or token.

then why doesn't Maryland?

Read more carefully; it did; and so did Delaware. Pennsylvania and the others further north are generally harder to invade due to the terrain, have (if I recall correctly) higher population and generally had enough time to organize proper defenses, at the price of sacrificing Virginia and indeed the south.

On another note, shouldn't there be some kind of revolt in the remaining American colonies in Britain by now? With the extraordinarily high costs of this war, I would think that Parliament would be resorting to taxation of the America colonies as they did after the Seven Years War. I would also think that the colonies wouldn't have representation, seeing as you neither mentioned them having representation nor it making any sense.

I already mentioned Britain's economic recovery, and the promises of granting representation to the colonies (and greater power to its elites...). Also, don't forget that the colonies are surrounded by hostile powers. A rebellion would be suicidal in those conditions.

So whether they want it or not, the colonies and the Metropoly have to cooperate to survive.

Symphony - Hitlercide is so overdone... The NSDAP will probably remain a fringe Dexlerite faction, without Hitler coming to invigorate it and turn it into the rallying point for a wide range of radical groups. Really, I don't think Hitler's OTL early party policies could be outdone...

There were plentiful other opportunistic groups that might replace the NSDAP. The DNVP, for example, or the Stahlhelm.