Alternate History Thread III

[Reno]

And in Germany, as news of Sikorsky's peace with Russia and succesful capture of Elbing and Konigsberg spread, a most unpleasant situation appears, with numerous rebellions against Swedish rule. And not just some pathetic princes this time - nein, now the citizens are rebelling in the streets. At least this does have some beneficient results for Charles X - the princes fear the revolution much more then they fear Sweden, and so they, with the exception of Adolph the Mad of Darmstadt, side with the Vasa. This comes in handy in early 1734, when, having finished mopping up Courland and East Prussia, and having taken Riga, the main Polish army, led by Sikorsky personally, invaded Silesia. Meanwhile, Russia finally entered the war - in spite of some turmoil and the Swedes being not entirely surprised, the Russians managed, together with another Polish army, to overrun much of Livonia and Estonia, and Swedes, led by General Lindgren, only barely held back the Russian attack at Viborg. Problematically, ofcourse, the Russian army hardly has high morale, and still is recovering from the defeats of the war with their new allies, but they did open two new theatres, effectively, and closed one of the Swedish ones. Thus now Sikorsky needs to worry only about the German operational theatre, whilst Charles X had to fight on two, three, even four fronts. And there was no telling how events in Italy and France would come out....

It seemed as if a decisive battle would come soon, any moment now, but 1734 passed by without any such decisive, final climax.

The feeble Silesian armies were easily crushed at Waldenburg by Sikorsky; the Swedes avoided combat. Charles X was desperately strenghthening his positions and reorganizing his army, whilst Siegbahn played land for time. Another Swedish army, a rather small group actually, in cooperation with local princes was fighting the German rebellions, which were especially widespread in the northwest and the south. Talinn was the only Swedish city in Estonia that continued to resist, whilst the war in Karelia stalemated. Good news came from the sea, ofcourse, as the Swedish-Dutch fleet decimated the Polish one at Memel - but that hardly was enough.

1735 came. England and Wales were declared an United Republic, which however was clearly opposed to the Scottish Republic to the north. In France, Louis XV begun to gain the upper hand again after the Orleanists and Republicans begun fighting each other as well, after D'Arles died in the Battle at Rennes. In Spain, chaos reigned supreme, albeit in name at least the Liberals and Carlos III have triumphed. In Italy, Buonoparte's Roman Republic was by then undisputed, especially after Buonoparte succesfully got Charles X AND Louis XV to recognize the new republic - after all, neither of them were in shape to fight it. The new republic was consolidating and solidifying, albeit regretfully the attempts to take Venetian Dalmatia failed - the Turks beat the Romans to it, and to most other Venetian oversea possessions. Ah well. In a court coup, Berdanov died, and the new chief minister (and de facto ruler) was Ivan Chirikov, who hinted to Charles that he did not at all plan to oblige by the humiliating Treaty of Smolensk. Ofcourse, no blatant betrayal was being suggested, but Russia was open to peace proposals.

Charles X considered all this well, and decided that enough was enough. The troops, the Germans, everybody was restless and anxious. Well then, he will not disappoint! He will gain a position of strenght on the battlefield and use it to negotiate with Russia - and the German rebels.

There was a problem, though. Whilst Charles assembled his great army, Sikorsky already took Berlin and also managed to force Siegbahn to give battle... and won, ofcourse. Wishing to destroy the threat to his flank, Sikorsky marched out for Pommerania, for Rostock to be more precise. Swedish-German-Dutch army of Charles only barely achieved something of a numerical superiority over Sikorsky's force, whilst in quality there was no doubt that the Polish army was the best. To the south of Rostock, the two armies met to decide the fates of Europe.

The Battle at Rostock. One of the greatest battles in the history of humanity, or so many will call it. But some would also call it "decisive". It was hardly that. The Swedish army was, ofcourse, considered by all contemporaries to be the best army of Europe. But in being best, it lagged behind as far as innovation went. Gustavus Adolphus, who invented flexible formations, combined armies and linear tactics, who was the architect of the strenght of Swedish armies, was dead. His system slowly became obsolete, albeit some still did their best to reform it and to bring it up to date. But by then, a new system was needed, with a new visionary. That visionary was Sikorsky, and he won.

The Swedish forces quickly tried to seize initiative and to strike on the Polish left flank. Sikorsky pretended to strengthen said flank, but actually prepared troops in his center to outflank the Swedish flankers. Said flankers, led by Siegbahn, were not caught completely by surprise and at some point nearly broke the Polish flankers with a secondary flank attack, but by then the main portion of Sikorsky's center, held by most Swedish commanders to be "some peasants with muskets", and his right flank simply crushed the rest of the Swedish army - to be fair, this time the German troops held strong, but were eventually broken.

Sikorsky was triumphant, whilst Charles fled for Mecklenburg. Or was he? Germany was ripe for taking... or was it? Polish supplies just weren't prepared for the effort needed to overrun Germany, whilst the waves of rebellion in Germany were beginning to peter out. Sure, Sikorsky still could capture much of Germany... but soon after, Charles managed to give the majority of German rebels a convenient fig leaf out of the war. The Ausgleich which Charles wanted to proclaim as victor at Rostock he now declared, defeated, from Mecklenburg, but something of the needed effect was achieved. Germans were way too civilized, too loyal, too phlegmatic to become a nation of revolutionaries. Which was why peasants and burghers, apart from some particularily fanatical northwesterners preffered the stable, good Vasa rule over a Republic, a concept that was foreign to Germany.

The Ausgleich was not really a work of genius (though Chancellor Tingsten definitely was if not a genius then at least an outstanding statesman), but it did the job. Simply enough, German Confederation was abolished and replaced by a Kingdom of Germany, consisting of all of Germany, including Kingdom of Bohemia, save for Swedish Pommerania. Said Kingdom was in personal union with Sweden, ofcourse. Said Kingdom was a fairly loose confederation, with the surviving princes having a large amount of autonomy, and had a bicamerial Konigstag (with the princes being, naturally, much more powerful then city and province representatives). Eventually, this system of personal union transformed into the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Germany, or Sweden-Germany, or just the UK (or UKSG).

This was an immense diplomatic and political victory, but it scarcely changed the facts: what little eagerness Chirikov might still have had for peace on equal terms after Sweden's defeat at Rostock was destroyed by the humiliating annihilation of a Swedish army at Magedburg, followed up by a new republican coup in Brunswick (remember - the northwestern Germans were hardly eager to surrender even after the Ausgleich). No, now Sweden would need to make concessions. Charles hesitated, hesistated... then news came from Viborg. A great Russian fleet was assembled nearby. The Swedish ships were too far to intercept it before Russians could outflank the fortress...

Distressed, Charles thought things over and... gave Chirikov a certain generous offer, an offer that would seem fairly controversial if we a) forget Charles' situation and b) forget that he, after all, was a half-German, and held Germany to be worth much more then some silly three provinces promised to Russia...

Estonia, Livonia and Courland, where Swedish were only beginning to counterattack, were promised to Russia. Russia would renounce all claims on Swedish parts of Karelia. Sweden would recognize all of Greater Lithuania (OOC: meaning all Lithuanian lands as of 1568, which is... to put it simply a lot of land) as Russian territory if they capture it. Russia is to re-enter the war with Poland within one month...

It, perhaps, didn't seem wise for Chirikov to betray Poland and ally with a defeated foe. But Chirikov knew something else. In Poland itself, Sikorsky dismissed the counterrevolution as a "phantom" and in spite of the advice of his old friend Wladimir Krajowski he did not strenghthen surveillance over the forgiven monarchists. But the Phantom of Reaction was raising its head again whilst Sikorsky was away, and to say the truth many of the more moderate republicans begun to despise their powerful master. And the war-weariness was beginning to fill Poland once more, as economy begun to shake... Chirikov, thus, knew that for all of Sikorsky's military victories, he was beginning to lose the battle that mattered - the battle for the hearts of his people. The peasants were still fairly conservative, and albeit Sikorsky's enigmatic personality drew many to support him, the price for this support was staggering, for the "levee en masse" took an entire generation out to the battlefields of Russia and Germany. Chirikov's spies gave him correct information - indeed, all it would take is just one defeat.

It is hard to say if Sikorsky was completely ignorant of this. But by the time he, in early 1736, did order a tightening of security, it really was too late. If only because the Russian front was re-opened, and Poles were besieged in Riga. Minsk was being threatened. The war in Ukraine went better for the Poles, though - there, the cossacks remained on their side, despite all. But in the west, Sikorsky was forced to retreat - "the German revolution was betrayed from within - and we must save Poland from a betrayal from without". Germany's was not the only defeated revolution - in France, Louis XV ("the Iron-Willed" was a worthy epithet for him indeed) was indeed too strong a ruler to give up easily; in fact, he by then had forced Duc d'Orleans to renounce all claims to the throne at the point of his sword (sources disagree if this was figuratively, as Louis XV was, though strong-willed, perhaps a little too predisposed for dramatic gestures...) and crushed Republicans in most of France; they only held out in the northeast by the beginning of 1736, the last year of the French Civil War. Spain... was Spain, the Portuguese even used the occasion to conquer Galicia (the Spanish one, naturally). Buonoparte was still all-powerful in Italy - an immensely ill-planned counterrevolutionary rising in Sicily was crushed, and ambitious reforms - "The Code of Civil Laws" - standardized law and destroyed many hangovers of feudalism, especially present in southern Italy. But that was irrelevant - Italy was at peace with the monarchies, and Buonoparte was free to impose "order and freedom", a stabilized version of the early New Roman Republic. The tide of Revolution, of the excitement of the masses has reached its highest point... and begun to subside. Very fast.

When Sikorsky was strong in Poland in the wake of his victories over the invaders, he introduced many radical measures - he confiscated property left and right, he raised taxes, he conscripted, he took all priveleges from the clergy. But now, the measures undertaken to prevent a counter-revolution proved too radical for the time, whilst earlier the people would have been surprised for the mildness of it all. The amnesty was essentially cancelled, those leaders who combatted the People's Republic in its early days were, together with a few newer troublemakers, imprisoned for counterrevolutionary activity. Some of them were executted soon after. Those half-hearted measures were such to avoid reverting to "tyranny worthy of a king" as Sikorsky put it - but had he taken harsh measures he would have probably defeated the counter-revolution; with what he did, he merely created a few martyrs and drew unnecessary attention to the counter-revolutionary cause. In the powerless Zgromadzenie Ludowe, "moderation" spred - the true revolutionaries were already scared into submission by Sikorsky's seeming allpowerfullness, and none of them dared act to save the Republic.




And then... the inevitable came. Nobody can win forever, and Sikorsky was defeated at Paderborn. It was far from a decisive defeat - it was a very close-ran battle, and Sikorsky only lost due to lack of luck. Still, in spite of orderly retreat, Sikorsky was immediately filled with suspicion... and fear. He knew that this was what his enemies were waiting for. In Warsaw, they would make this seem like a rout through their lies, and before Sikorsky could return... they would betray the revolution! So Sikorsky hurried with most of his army east, telling them that he received a reliable message - the counterrevolution has begun. And so it had. General Shmigly's Armia Krajowa was led by its ambitious leader ito Warsaw; the Steelwall has made a deal with the counterrevolutionaries, because he felt needlessly neglected by Sikorsky in all times but those of peril (not necessarily untrue...). Shmigly defeated what little resistance there was and declared the end of the People's Republic. "Now, children of Poland, we will no longer follow the tyrant Sikorsky and his warmongering ways - no, now Poland will seek peace!" A provisional government was formed by the Council of Five, which then declared Shmigly their leader and the regent of the restored Royal Republic. Problems appeared almost immediately - Shmigly didn't want to give up over a half of Poland's territory to Russia for some odd reason, and Sikorsky for his part was already reported to be in Berlin, if not in Poznan.

 

[Reno]

On August 5th 1736, Polish Civil War officially recommenced. Sikorsky marched on Warsaw, and organized some of the Poles to fight on his side; his only real powerbase was his army, however - the people will only support the People's Republic when it will once more triumph, and triumph definitely, completely. And Sikorsky did his best. Shmigly was a determined defender, but he was badly outnumbered and only barely managed to flee the city with a few supporters; the real winners from all this were the Russians and the Swedes, that advanced against nonexistant and demoralized Polish troops in Greater Lithuania and Germany respectively. As Russians marched into Volhynia and Lithuania Proper, they received growing resistance, but it was not enough to hinder them. Not wishing to bind himself to a sinking corpse, Stepan Bulba declared the Zaporozhian Republic, which gave rather more efficient resistance to the Russians, but attempts to incite new cossack and serf rebellions in Russia failed - nobody wanted to risk their lives for some abstract "freedom" anymore, after the most rebellious died or were sent to penal colonies in the aftermath of the last rebellion.

But ofcourse Sikorsky didn't abandon all of Germany to the Swedes; no, in Rostock, the garrison of General Stanislaw Dromowski continued to hold out against all odds, as did the Berlin garrison, and all this unnecessarily hindered Swedish movement. And that won Sikorsky time - he managed to march east and to defeat Shmigly at Marijampole and then Russians at Kaunas. Negotiations with Stepan Bulba yielded not much fruit, but by then Sikorsky didn't care too much about it - he needed to organize a defense of Poland. He appealed to the people of Poland, to their patriotism, and inspite of the warweariness he managed to raise some more support. In spite of his defeats, Shmigly refused to surrender, retreating to Lublin and forming a government there. Russian advance was repeatedly checked by Sikorsky, but his forces were beginning to be stretched thin, especially as the Swedes landed in East Prussia.

By the beginning of 1737, Sikorsky was determined to knock out Shmigly first, and knock him out for good. A two-pronged attack on Lublin begun, but by then Shmigly, a formidable defender, turned the city into an exemplary Vauban fortress. Assault after assault was beaten back, and although Shmigly did know that he surrendered initiative to Sikorsky, he was also aware that time was against the Dictator of the Republic. All he needed was to hold out long enough... And Sikorsky knew this as well, which was why he decided to launch an all-out assault. The fortress-city was surrounded and bombarded ruthlessly for several days, and then eventually a costly massive assault allowed its capture after seven hours of very brutal fighting within the city's fortress. Shmigly was captured and executted by a firing squad. But Sikorsky's forces took great casualties in the assault; indeed, it was a pyrrhic victory, and the only thing worse would have been a defeat. Ofcourse, Sikorsky's positions were actually safer now that he was close to Warsaw - but nonetheless, too much was at stake. Even with the defeat of Shmigly, there was a continued conservative guerrila war in the countryside, and the events of July 1736 hardly made Sikorsky trust the cities. They all were waiting for him to slip. He was determined not to.

But when so many people want for just one man to slip, he eventually does. Throughout 1737, Sikorsky succesfully warded off attack after attack, and defeated a conservative "army" at Rzeszow. 1738 saw more retreats, but a continued desperate struggle. Vilnus fell, Poznan fell, but Sikorsky fought on. Alread open revolts started against him, but nonetheless most of them were crushed. And finally, he was himself defeated at Slonim on August 17th, where Russian and Swedish forces under Mitorin and Charles X respectively met up. That was the end.

...Nobody knows what happened to Sikorsky. Some claim he died at Slonim, others that he drowned during the retreat, a persistant version says that he commited suicide soon after Slonim. The clergy's unofficial stance on the issue was that the Satan took his servant back. Or something like that. Anyway, he was dead, and Poland collapsed before the leaves fell. The Vasa Royal Republic (under a member of a cadet line of the Polish dynasty, as the Polish Vasa main line was extinct) was restored, but lost vast parts of its land - Sweden took several northwestern lands into Germany, including the city of Thorn, whilst Russia got what it was promised. Poland was hardly a stable state afterwards, much to the contrary actually - the new rulers brought peace, but at a horrible price. Still, the war was over, peace came, and with it the time to pick up the pieces.

By 1745, the situation in the world somehow stabilized, and it is a good opportunity to examine the most serious of changes:

Europe:

In British Isles, the United Republic eventually crumbled, but the extremelly-limited monarchy that was restored as a compromise had to adopt many of the Republic's social reforms. The Second English Monarchy was headed by a cadet branch of House Bourbon ("English Bourbons" or "House of Burbon-Stuart"), something that was only pulled through because of the Swedish distraction and the very limited nature of English monarchy; technically, everybody would have preffered to have the real Stuarts, but they disagreed with the constitution and a large amount of them fled... elsewhere (see below). Scotland and Ireland, meanwhile, were unified into the Celtic Republic with a capital in Glasgow; attempts to capture Wales failed, naturally, but Scotland and Ireland were, after all, what mattered. And the Swedes still were, out of custom (and out of the harmlessness of the Celts), supporting said Republic.

In France, absolutism was stronger then ever, the Parlement was dissolved for an uncertain amount of time and Louis the Iron-willed was completely undisputed a ruler. In Spain, after the chaos, another limited monarchy emerged, though a horribly unpopular and thus unstable one. After some serious effort to fix things after the Spanish Empire lost over a half of its lands (see below), the new ruling elite decided that this was hopeless and that being corrupt is much more fun anyway. In Italy, Paolo Buonoparte stabilized his Roman Republic, eventually transforming it into... the Roman Empire. Needless to say that seriously disturbed everybody outside of it, but Emperor Paolo I assured the world that his intentions were peaceful. No, really. The rulers of Europe trusted him rather more when he hinted that being peaceful means being peaceful to EUROPEANS - Turks don't count. Already, preparations begun...

Anyway... Sweden-Germany survived the rebellions of 1743, though Denmark, occupied since 1735, had to be evacuated; the new Danish Republic was completely isolated, entrenched and increasingly opressive. A smart Dane (an outstanding statesman as well as inventor) called Valdemar Nielsen invented the "Nielsen's razor" (OTL guillotine), an innovative, modern, effective instrument for killing Swedish spies, enemies of the people and other undesirables. Poland was shaken by revolts in 1744, but the Royal Republic survived for now. Russia was having lots of trouble imposing control on the vast conquered territories, but Chirikov wasn't a one to give up; percentage of Lithuanians as an ethnic group in Eastern Siberia grew quite rapidly, whilst Zaporozhian Cossacks often fled for Poland and Turkish Hungary, causing awful amounts of havoc in both. Speaking of Hungary, the Ottoman control there, and in North Africa, and in Arabia, and in fact in numerous other parts of their empire was slipping - corruption combined with overstretchment was beginning to do harm, and soon enough First and Third Romes started planning a carve-up of certain territories of Second Rome, conspiring with Hungary's very own noble revolutionary Bela Petofi, who by then already staged two unsuccesful but popular revolts near Buda.

Europe begun to calm down. But what once was, may come again...

Americas:

America was... very interesting in this time. As one might expect, Spain's and France's troubles led to much opportunity within their American holdings. And there always are opportunists where there is opportunity, so... Firstly, Virginia almost by default expanded west, across the Appalachians, to Ohio River; the French hardly had troops to spare to stop this, or Carolina's subsequent westwards expansion. Carolina was taken over by Rupert Stuart (OOC: named so for Prince Rupert, ofcourse), one of the pretenders to England's throne, when he fled here, to this Royalist stronghold, in 1734, sensing the war in England lost. Refusing to accept the Parliamentarist terms for peace (i.e. the extreme limitation of king's authority in exchange for recognition of him as king), Rupert declared himself King Rupert I of Carolina. Said Carolina would naturally have a series of rather repetitive and indecisive border wars with Virginia, and thus would have to seek allies in France and... Mexico. But before you learn about the nature of newly-independant Mexico, something about other opportunists in the region:
- Scottish (or now Celtic) Darien land-grabbed somewhat, taking all of OTL Panama and Costa Rico.
- The Carolinans managed to eventually take Bahamas and Jamaica without much of a fight; went on to take Danish Virgin Islands.
- The French recovering earlier then the Spanish as they did, they took Eastern Hispaniola.
- Hollanders took St. Lucia, Trinidad and Antigua, though the latter was by 1745 sold back to England.
- Portugal expanded in the Amazon region greatly, though its efforts to take Buenos Aires and Asuncion somewhat failed (see below)...

And Mexico... Well, remember that runaway Habsburg pretender? He was called Ferdinand, and he was rather inspired by Rupert's Carolinan efforts. After spending some time gaining friends and influencing people, he peacefully, with scarcely a shot fired, stole most of Viceroyalty of New Spain (not the Carribean parts, alas, but everything else...) and created the Empire of Mexico, with himself as Emperor Ferdinand I. As Spanish rule seemed doomed anyway, a bit of talk with important governors and garrison commanders made all this possible.

Miracilously, perhaps because the only one with any initiative was a half-crazed descendant-of-the-last-Inca, Viceroyalties of New Granada and Peru remained Spanish... for now. Viceroyalty of Rio de La Plata, plus a part of Peruvian Viceroyalty called "Chile", was separate; it was called United Jesuit Provinces of La Plata, a theocratic democracy, a Jesuit republic based in Asuncion that succesfully fought off Portuguese and Spanish efforts to subjugate it. The visionary leader of this... interesting state was Simeon Juarez, who managed to unite Jesuit priests and their converts with the Spanish colonists into a single state, no simple feat ofcourse.

India:

Numerous English, French and Spansh colonies were occupied by Holland; most of them were later returned.

Southeast Asia:

The Dutch succesfully took over Philippines, but an attempt to retake Formosa resulted in an indecisive three-year naval war with China, eventually resulting in the recognition of status quo - Holland kept Philppines, China kept Formosa. Still, this war was significant as it greatly damage Sino-Dutch relations.

1745-1800. The Outer World, a.k.a. everything-that-is-not-in-Europe.

As refugees fled the war-ravaged continent, and as political undesirables and petty criminals alike were being deported en masse to the penal colonies, the American colonies of France (for they, due to being so vast and so overadvertised, were the most popular destination amongst the voluntary migrants, whilst the unvoluntary ones mostly came from France itself) experienced much population growth. This, combined with other concers - such as Henri Jaures' expedition into California, where the renowned Frenchman discovered gold, and also the growing pace of Mexican and Russian expansionism for similar reasons (well, Russian expansion into Alaska and nearby regions was mostly caused by fur trade opportunities...) - made France pay an increased amount of attention to the colonies, reorganizing them into the Union of Royal Territories of America (URTA) for more direct administration and fund colonization and expansion. Albeit the French still were comparatively nice towards Amerinds, this reckless expansionism angered many, and something of a guerrila war was fought in 1760s by Cheeseekau, a fierce Muskogee chieftain (who however led numerous other tribes and allied with more still). Anyhow, on paper at least, during this period the northwestern parts of North America were partitioned between Russia, Mexico and France; Mexico came to control the southern half of OTL Alta California, not to mention Bajo, east from there approximately along the Colorado, albeit often further north then the river itself, and east from that towards Brazos in an almost-straight line. This territory was sparsely populated, apart from the Mexican parts of Texas and California. Russian Alaska extended as far east as Grahm River (OTL Mackenzie River) and the west slopes of the Rocky Mountains, whilst the southern border was the Columbia River - naturally, most of that territory was populated by Amerinds who did trade with the Russians, but usually not much else, whilst the only Russian settlements were coastal ones, especially at Gromovoy Island (OTL Vancouver Island). France officially held a vast area north of the Mexican lands and east of the Russian ones; as one might guess, the interior and the far north were mostly populated by small Indian tribes, some of which never heard of France (that is, they heard of "white men" - not much beyond). The main centers of population were North California (OOC: in this world, North California is the official name for all of the French-held Pacific Coast, i.e. it extends all the war to Columbia River), Louisiana, Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, Quebec (i.e. the territory on both sides of St. Lawrence river, though officially much of Quebec peninsula was considered apart of the Royal Territory of Quebec), Acadia and Terreneuve (OTL Newfoundland)... and there was growing dissent, occasionally turning into rebellion, over French rule, or more specifically the degree of control French government had over its colonies here through the URTA Directory. Nouvelle-Orleans, Acadia and Terreneuve, of those populated areas, were the only regions where the overwhelming majority of the population was royal to the king. A major problem with local separatists was lack of coordination; the Nord-Californians hardly cared about what happened in Quebec, for example. But eventually, better-coordinated organizations begun to emerge...

France was an ally of both England, which still held New England, and Carolina, albeit it often had hard time keeping the two away from each other. Carolinans were eventually persuaded to sell back Bahamas, but ofcourse Jamaica was already "the jewel in Carolina's crown". The two countries were united not only by French efforts, though; they also were united in their hatred and fear of Virginia, Holland and Mexico, which for their part were also in an uneasy alliance since 1767. In 1764 and again in 1789, there were major wars between Virginia and Carolina; albeit the Carolinan army, especially when reinforced by France (but that hardly was neccessary) was far better then the Virginian one, Virginia for its part had a well-trained militia which fought textbook guerrila campaigns every time the homeland was invaded. Habsburg Mexico, meanwhile, had no such militias; instead, the Mexicans organized light cavalry out of borderland rancheros and applied Sikorskian strategy of harassment, whilst imitating Sikorsky almost to a letter in other fields of military organization as well - conscript armies combined with the Imperial Guardsmen were used well at Corpus Christi, crushing an invading French army in 1766.

In South America... well, the last vestiges of Spanish rule were removed. The radical Grenadine Republic in Gran Colombia now (since the Grenadine Revolution of 1776) coexisted with the Second Incan Empire of Peru (actually it was just as, if not more, Creole as Amerind; it was a limited divine monarchy, which can be rather confusing), whilst the UJPLP, or just the UJP (United Jesuit Provinces), was suffering from racial and ethnic problems, as the Spaniards querreled with "old natives", mostly Guaranis, who for their part querreled with newly-"integrated" natives, mostly Araucanians, and migrants who came there to enjoy the prosperity, freedom and peace, and who got little of the latter at least.

In North Africa, the Great Turkish War (see below and also the European part) marked the downfall of Ottoman power west of Egypt... this was immediately exploited by Portugal, France and Rome. Portugal took over (the independant from even earleir then the GTW, but ravaged first by the independance war and then by the civil war) Morocco, France seized Algiers and Romans, as a part of the main war effort, gained Tunisia, Tripolitania and Cyreneica, and nearly got Egypt as well if not for the Franco-Swedish protests (Sweden feared Romans gaining the vast resources of Egypt, France feared that too but mostly was concerned with the degree of power attained by Rome in the Mediterranean lately). Generally, Portugal was undergoing a period of revival, this time concentrating on expansion in Africa. Colonial forts were built on Madagascar and in Namibia, trade posts and missionary centers appeared all over the Congo region and in the Horn ofAfrica, more trade outposts in West Africa were set up to use local slave trade, and from the recently-"acquired" Canary Islands the Portuguese expanded their rule not only into Morocco Proper, but also into its long-abandoned southern provinces... This vigorous colonial effort proved quite worth it, and solved the overpopulation problems in Portuguese Brazil. Holland also advanced somewhat from Sudafrika, fighting and winning three Xhosa Wars, and also Mozambik (OTL Mozambique) was used as a base for further expeditions into East Africa, establishing good trade relations with local Swahili city states.

The collapse, in 1749, of the vast Afghan Empire created numerous opportunities for many powers. Before we look at the consequences in India, the consequences in Persia are also worth noting. With the fall of the Afghans, the last strong power in Persia, the power vacuum that appeared was used by Russia and Holland; whilst the former invaded the warring Persian and Afghan states from Turkemistan and also from across the Caspian Sea, the latter seized Bander Abbas and converted it into a significant naval base. As in 1754 the Great Turkish War begun, the Russian forces finished unifying Persia (basically putting it under various local puppet rulers and declaring protectorates) and moved on to invade Turkish Iraq and Aizerbadjan, whilst another offensive came in Georgia; the logistics prevented the Russians from advancing as far as they hoped, but much progress was made and through treachery Iraq was "acquired", though after the war it became independant under the same Georgian Mameluke governors (OOC: yes, Georgian. They were semi-autonomous in OTL, so...). Aizerbadjan and Caucasus, however, were annexed and kept as parts of Russia's newest province; after the GTW, much Russian troops and funds would be used to keep order in Persia and to utilize its ports well, to consolidate the great province and to make sure that no matter what, it doesn't slip. And so far, it didn't albeit the 1781 Shiite rebellion was very close. Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire, having lost many lands, including Hejjaz and al-Hasa to native rulers (and afterwards they lost it to the rising Muwahhid/Wahhabi empire, which united much of Arabia during late 18th century), tried to pull itself together once more, and Osman III energetically partook in reforms, inviting Swedish advisors and building a worthy fleet, whilst cracking down hard on corruption and lawlessness; needless to say, such opressive measures provoked righteous revolts that were barely put down, but Osman III refused to abandon his line, by 1800 Ottoman Empire, though still a secondary if not tertiary power, was beginning to catch up on the Europeans.

Chaos that reigned in Arabia in the wake of the Wars of Muwahhid Ascendancy allowed Holland to capture Muscat.

In India, Holland continued to grow in power. The inland Ceylonese kingdom of Kandy was crushed, Dutch power was extended, directly or through proxy rulers, into Bengal... Holland was strong, and thus it was envied. France, and the weakened England and Portugal, supported the rising Marathans to best of their ability - with arms, funds and specialists. This allowed said Marathas to actually fight the Dutch into a stalemate in the First Dutch-Marathan War of 1776-1782, and after that the Dutch had no choice but to do what their opponents were doing for Marathas, only this time for the natural enemies of Maratha - Mysore and Sikh Gujarat. There were a few other, smaller states in India, but they were either vassals of the Marathas, either those of their enemies, or perhaps they were the ever-neutral Nepalese.

The growing rivalry between Holland and China was quite noticeable, and it prevented them from defeating the rising Siam when they could have done that easily. Whilst the chaos of Northern Burma was replaced by Chinese provincial administration, the Siamese grabbed far more valuable northern Malay lands. As Holland solidified its power over East Indies, most significantly Sumatra where the defiant city of Atjeh has been captured after a few days of siege and assault, Siam built up a fleet to threaten Holland's power. And with the natives under Dutch rule increasingly restless, French-backed Siam now was a very serious threat...

Oh, and in 1792, the port of Australville (OTL Dampier) was established by shipwrecked Frenchmen; soon enough, it became a significant base for French-supported anti-Dutch pirates.

 

[Reno]

1745-1800. Europe.

In the wake of the First Revolutionary War, ideas of radical republicanism and nationalism spread widely through Europe. As explained previously, Russia was comparatively untouched by this, but the extensive western gains started three major rebellion during this era - in 1746, 1763 and 1797; for the same reason, Turkey also was not "infected" by these ideas, but regardless, separatism in such regions as Hungary and Greece, largely on nationalist grounds, was rising. Poland itself was wrecked by rebellions during the time, with frequent foreign intervention turning the Vasa Royal Republic into little more then a Swedish puppet state. Sweden-Germany was suffering as well - Finnish and German nationalism was on the rise in spite of all, especially in southern Finland and northwestern Germany. In fact, the last two decades of the 18th century were witness to bitter fighting between loyalists and well-armed rebels. A radicalist coup d'etat in Stockholm itself was barely crushed in 1762 (the would-be coupers also believed that the whole union was taken over by Germans; as many northern Germans were indeed in the government of UKSG, such an illusion did appear). Denmark slowly deteriorated, collapsing into civil war and general anarchy, to be picked up by Sweden-Germany in 1759. Holland increasingly turned into a real republic by reforms, as stadholder became little more then a ceremonial official. Rome managed, thanks to Paolo I's and August I's policies, to avoid any such problems, sometimes forcefully destroying the cultural gap between northern and southern Italains. Celtic Republic and the English Kingdom were continuously at each other's throats, occasionally starting inconclusive limited wars, and things didn't get better when pro-Celtic moods begun to spread in Wales. In France, opression grew, as numerous republican rebellions were defeated during the era, two of them - in 1775 and 1793 - being very major and nation-wide. This, combined with the growing tide of Walloon, Alsatian and Catalan nationalism prevented France from using the instability in Sweden-Germany in 1770s. Spain was trying to stabilize, but mostly unsuccesfully; the Basque nationalism lingered on, and occasional conservative rebellions eventually, in 1789, resulted in the restoration of absolute monarchy under Carlos IV; the ensuing liberal/radical rebellions were defeated, however.

The thing about this period was that all major states were too weakened by the First Revolutionary War and the later rebellions, not to mention distracted, to attack each other. A notable exception was Rome, which, together with Russia, started a war against the weakening, unstable Ottoman Empire in 1754. Coordinated with a nationwide Hungarian rebellion (led by Bela Petofi), the war was a compelete rout for Turkish troops. They tried to defend their ground, in Crimea and in Greece especially, but their enemies were too strong... and too bold, keeping the initiative in their hands. Paulo I personally led the Army of Illyria, which quickly took Zadar and marched to Zagreb from there, to link up with Petofi. By the middle of 1755, Hungary, with the exception of parts of Transylvania, was free. Corfu was captured without much of a fight, and the Ottoman fleet was annihilated by the Roman Armade at Navarin. Russian forces slowly besieged Akkerman and Kaffa, slowly but surely as the Turkish army was utterly beaten.

Long story cut short, in 1757 the Turks finally surrendered, ceding many lands in the Middle East and Africa (see previous post) and in Europe as well. In Europe, Illyria and Greece, as well as the Ioanian Islands, were annexed by Rome; Hungary, including Transylvania, became an independant kigndom under Petofi dynasty; Russia annexed the Crimean Khanate (um, made the Turks grant it independance and placed the Crimeans under Russian protection until a rebellion "forced" them to annex it directly) and Turkish Yedisan. Also, albeit this was unofficial, this war signified the creation of a new block of powers - Russia, Hungary and Rome were now on very good terms, and that only meant trouble for the established, but now declining, great powers of Sweden (allies: Virginia, Mexico, Celtica (Celtic Republic), Holland, Spain, Poland (the latter being a puppet state, and an unstable one at that)) and France (allies: Carolina, England, Portugal).

Apart from that and a few indecisive minor Celto-English border wars, Europe was at "peace", which basically means that most rulers were too busy fighting their own people to fight each other, or sometimes, like in the case of Sweden and Poland, they were intervenning to ensure "peace and order" in nearby countries.

Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution was taking place, mostly in Holland, northern Germany and Sweden but beginning to spread into England, Celtica, France and Rome...

The only people who write TLs on a regular basis... The only person who writes them on a regular basis has posted here, therefore, it is legitimate.

I suppose your right, I'll ask the moderators.

 

[Imago]

Great. Thanks.

 

[das]

Zoroastrian Seljuks ftw?

I did that one (well, not Seljuks, but still Turks) so often it has lost some of its appeal for me already.

Anyway, prepare for a huge barrage of Canutian nation backgrounds. Feel free to challenge the plausibility of the Swiss commune and the evil Druze empire, because I already prepared arguments in defense of both.

---

Nation Backgrounds for Thlayli:

Natchez Empire: The smallpox epidemics that devastated the Mississippi civilization in the 14th century proved to be a blessing in disguise for the Natchez, as through a combination of luck and seclusion they, though still hard-hit, weren't as damaged as most of their neighbours. Led by their Pakachilu Ulatchuhna, the Natchez used the power vacuum to subjugate many of the nearby tribes that previously exacted tribute from them; having led his tribe to great victories, Ulatchuhna overthrew the Great Sun (domestic leader) as well and took full power in the land, reforming it into a highly-militaristic empire and proceeding to lead it to further greatness, conquering - or at least vassalizing - nearly all the tribes of the Mississippi Valley and the whereabouts. His empire was vastly overstretched, however, as were the Natchez themselves; accordingly, after his death in 1297, it all fell apart into chaos and internicine strife. Nonetheless, one of his self-declared successors, Makup Hayuhana, had reunited the core of his empire again in the middle 15th century, just in time to repulse an Iberian invasion. Employing the Iberian weapons, he forged a new, though lesser, empire and, with typical luck, befriended Andalusian merchants. As a result, he managed to modernize his empire and military, and repulse another invasion. His empire is still alive this day, but his successors weren't nearly as great leaders; meanwhile, the subservient tribes in the south and the north are getting rebellious, the leadership is increasingly corrupt and the Iberians are unlikely to repeat any of their past mistakes...

Incan Empire: Though not yet directly affected by the European intrusions to any reasonable extent, indirectly the Incan Empire was ravaged by smallpox and other diseases in the 14th century, and nearly fell apart in the beginning of the 15th, when the first contact with both Leon and Andalusia was made. In the end, after a major civil war, it was held together, and begun to rebound from its losses, reclaiming several lost provinces, in the process coming into conflict with Andalusian merchants and missionaries in the north; although they were expelled, the Andalusians failed to do anything about it. The Incan Empire and the Leonese and Andalusians both have some knowledge about each other, mostly based on rumours and only barely reliable, but it seems inevitable that sooner or later, they shall clash - one way or another.

Irish Empire: Further isolated from the rest of Europe by the ongoing Viking raids and the final schism with Rome in 1061, Ireland languished in internicine strife until the late 12th century, when Ruaidri mac Aedh Ua Conchabair of Connacht defeated his enemies in a series of campaigns, declared himself the Emperor of Ireland and went on to crush a major invasion by the Norse vassals, reuniting Ireland. His later campaign to free Wales had ultimately failed, however, and so his successors in the 13th century went by a different path; having completely turned their backs towards Europe and cut most of their ties with it (not that they had many left, between the pirates and the Inquisition), they concentrated on internal reform, rebuilding Ireland from the ruination of war and centralizing the monarchy. With new-found strenght and vigour, the Irish expelled Vikings from the seas in a series of campaigns, and conquered Iceland in 1223. As their fishermen - and after them, traders, explorers and missionaries - travelled further and further to the west, the Irish discovered Avalon sometines in the 1240s and soon started the colonial age, by establishing colonies and trade outposts there. Though their monopoly on the trade with the Amerinds was broken in the 14th century, this was Ireland's Golden Age, as it prospered both economically and culturally. The 15th century, however, was a time of decline. Though still prosperous, Ireland was increasingly overtaken by Leon as the colonial and commercial hegemon of the Atlantic; it had also grown careless over the decades and allowed its military to decrease in size and training, resulting in the rude awakening of 1483, when Ireland's attempt to conquer Leon's key Atlantic islands resulted in a humiliating defeat. Meanwhile, just across the Irish Sea the Norse Empire was on the rise, and begun to cast greedy looks at Ireland itself... The first few decades of the 16th century will decide Ireland's fate - either it will win its right to exist, either it will be consigned to the list of would-be great powers.

Norse Empire: The direct descendant of Canute the Great's 11th century empire (according to others, that very same empire reformed and centralized), the Norse are, at present, the hegemon power of Western Europe, unchallenged in the North Sea. After Canute's death in 1052, England, Norway and Denmark all went to different sons; nevertheless, the three powers remained in close allegience, and all prospered, despite occasional rebels and wars with neighbours. In the middle 12th century, Harthacanute II of England had reunited the kingdoms after succesful intrigue and campaigning, and reformed his empire along the line of Kievan Rus, monopolizing key noble posts in the hands of his descendants, and creating a clear dynastic hierarchy, transforming the Norse Realms into a feudal confederacy. Though this did not prevent civil wars, it paved the way for future centralization, and fostered the trade. Until the 15th century, however, the Realms remained inert and introverted, even though aggressive frontier nobles expanded the Norse territories, especially in Great Britain where all the Celtic lands were conquered, and less succesful wars were waged in the 12th and 13th centuries against Ireland and Sweden. In 1409, it all changed when Harald IV the Great - or the Ruthless - put an end to a particularily vicious period of internicine strife with great ruthlessness by overthrowing both of his warring brothers and taking the throne for himself, then defeating a series of rebellions. The regionalist forces in the Realms broken in the War of the Nobles in 1412-1415, Harald IV took strict measures to centralize all power in the Realms in Yorvick, and after securing control over his homelands, used his new, professional, infantry-based army to intervenne in Europe. He struck a deal with the Pope, getting autonomy for the Norse Church, general support of all of his actions and later coronation as Emperor of the Norse in exchange for intervenning against Friedrich VI's Holy Roman Empire, which back then seemed to be the most powerful nation in Europe. But it was overstretched and bloated, and enjoyed little support in its most wealthy regions, such as the Flanders which Harald had invaded, encouraging the Flemish populace to rise up. In a gigantic Battle at Amersfoort, Friedrich VI's vast, yet outdated forces were routed by the numerically-inferior Norse and Flemish soldiers; a year later, in 1421, the Holy Roman Empire was collapsing, with rebellions literally everywhere and Imperial forces consistantly defeated. Desperate, Friedrich VI recruited the assistance of his old French enemy, Phillippe VIII, who was also fearful of the growing Norse power; however, his invasion of Flanders came to an inglorious end and he himself was captured at Waterloo, while the powerful Angevin nobles rose up in Aquitaine with Norse assistance. After some more campaigns, the Norse Empire established control over nearly a third of Gaul and the entirety of Flanders, plus the city of Bremen which defected early in the Imperial War; both great powers of Western Europe were completely destroyed. Harald's successors were neither as great, as ruthless or as aggressive as he, but they maintained his empire and defeated all revolts against them. Nevertheless, the Norse Empire is now beginning to stagnate; its internal enemies are still out there and Sweden's recent ascendance seems very threatening...

Kingdom of Brittany: The single most fiercely independent - because of its unique Celtic identity - part of France, Brittany remained a nearly-independent French vassal under Nomenid dukes for much of the Middle Ages. Resisting various French centralization efforts, Brittany was finally incorporated into France in 1387 by force; however, when France collapsed in the Flemish War, the Nomenids quickly returned and with the help of local rebels reclaimed the Duchy, now declared a kingdom. Using its beneficient strategic position and great relations with Ireland, Brittany built a prospering colonial empire of its own. However, now the powerful Norse Empire is looking hungrily both at Brittany and at its patron...

Kingdom of Greater Lothringen: Hemmed in between France and the HRE, the Duchy of Upper Lothringen - last fragment of Lothair I's Francia Media - was often the battleground of the two, both in war and diplomacy; though Gerard I and his heirs mostly remained loyal to the Emperor, the French often invaded Lothringen, the Imperials then counter-invaded and the once-prosperous land was ruined, especially during the wars of the 14th century, after which, for the lack of local heirs, the Imperials assumed absolute control here. The Flemish War changed everything; Marc d'Trieves, a local nobleman of French descendance, used the collapse of both France and the HRE to raise a popular rebellion and claim first the entirety of Upper Lothringen, then the lands around it, from Saone to Rhine. Marc I was crowned King of Greater Lothringen, and officially allied with the Norse in their final campaign against Phillippe VIII. His son Richard I maintained the alliance with the Norse, whilst Lothringen rebuilt from its past ravages and rose to dominate the trade in the Rhine; however, attempts at military expansion into chaotic Germany failed. As Bavaria begun to dominate Central Germany, the Lotharingians - ever more Francified culturally - increasingly turned to the west, where the Norse Empire was weakening and the French simply called for liberation... and unification.

Kingdom of Aquitaine: For much of its Mediaeval history, France's Paris-based Capeting dynasty was in struggle with the powerful Angevin nobility of the south; the former seeked to break all feudal resistance to centralization efforts, the latter seeked to retain as much freedom and power as possible. That struggle went on with changing fortunes, but no decisive conclusion; Phillippe VIII did manage to considerably trim Angevin power after the 1397 War of French Inheritance, but this came back to sting him during the disastrous Flemish War; as France crumbled, the Angevins acted quickly and cut all ties with Paris, declaring the Kingdom of Aquitaine. Certainly, apart from the Norse, it is now the most powerful realm in former France; in the last few years, it has prospered, expanded into the Avalon and defeated an Aragonese invasion. But many believe that the Angevins are destined for greater things; not ruling a mere regional power, but expelling the Norse invaders and reuniting France - and then, leading it to greatness.

Kingdom of Provence: After a long and exciting history of Catalonian, Northern French, Angevin, Imperial and local intrigues and wars, Provence, still a great cultural and economic center of Europe, fell to a cadet branch of the French ruling dynasty, retaining close ties with the crown ofcourse. The devastation in the War of French Inheritance and the general decline of Mediterranean trade ended Provence's Golden Age; however, when after the Flemish War it regained independence under an energetic local ruler Louis III, hopes again arose, as Louis not only defeated an Aquitainian invasion, but also, forming an alliance with Aragon and Austria, greatly gained from the Italian War, seizing Dauphine, Geneve, Savoy and Piedmont by 1452. Though Louis IV and his ambitions were defeated in 1471 at Cremona by an Austro-Italian coalition, since then relations with Austria were restored and now, plentiful opportunities exist for the young kingdom - it could try to reunite France, or it could again try to unite Italy, or perhaps it could press its claims to the Aragonese crown and go for a Mediterranean empire as trade is picking up again...

 

[das]

Second Leonese Empire: In the 10th and 11th centuries, Leon, one of the successor states of Asturia, was the hegemon of Christian Spain, coordinating the resistance to Al-Mansur and other Muslim invaders and reaching its initial zenith under Alfonso VI, who declared himself Emperor of All Spain and captured Toledo; however, immediately after came decline and the loss of the Imperial title, as the Almoravids revitalized Andalusia and landed a series of defeats on the Christian army, while the far-away, safe Navarre briefly ascended to hegemony; after that, there was chaos and interfighting amongst the Spanish Christians; the Leonese Empire fell apart, dividing into Castille, Leon and Portugal (although the latter two reunited before the end of the 12th century). In the 13th century, while the Aragonese turn for hegemony came with the capture of Valencia from the fracturing Almohad Empire, Leon sat quietly and recovered; under Ferdinand III, it had secured lands north of Ebro and prospered peacefully, co-existing with the Muslims. The 14th century was a time of true greatness - using dynastic disputes in Castille (after its king died during a foolhardy invasion of Andalusia), Ferdinand VI defeated the Aragonese at Najera and annexed Castille, then declared himself Emperor Ferdinand I of Leon; this was the end (or, at least, the halt) of the Reconquista, as Aragon, thwarted in its pan-Iberian ambitions, turned to the Mediterranean, whilst Leon signed a formal peace treaty with the new Majardid rulers of Andalusia and turned to the Atlantic Ocean and Avalon. Leon is now a great, ascendant power, with a splendid colonial empire, the Atlantic Ocean's strongest fleet and a golden age culture; and before it lie many opportunities - for colonial expansion, for unification of Spain, perhaps even for complete Atlantic hegemony if Ireland could be crushed; hell, with some luck it may replace the Norse Empire as the West European hegemon in the 16th century.

Kingdom of Aragon: A model European parliamentary monarchy, Aragon is in fact a royal federation of Aragon itself, Catalonia, Navarre, Valencia, Sardinia, Sicily and Naples, forged by ties of contract and inheritance and united around Saragossa. This system (adapted immediately upon union with Catalonia) gave Aragon comparative stability as long as the central and royal authority remained roughly in balance with the regional magnates and urban councils; and this cooperation allowed Aragon to capture Valencia, and later recover from the 1323 defeat at Najera, after which Catalonia's merchants greatly rose in importance and became the guiding force of Aragon, as it moved into position of predominance in the Western Mediterranean. However, the 15th century ended this renaissance - plagues ravaged Aragon, Byzantines and their allies checked its expansion in Italy, and the late 15th century invasions of North Africa to regain predominance were catastrophical failures. With the royal power at its weakest, Aragon seems to be on the brink of collapse, its various constituent parts clamouring for more and more autonomy on the verge of total independence; as if that was not enough, its native dynasty has recently died out, the heirless King Pedro V foolishly throwing his life away at Algiers; the Council of Regency holds power for now, but already, several Aragonese noble families, the Garcinids of Leon, the Angevins of Aquitaine and the Albons of Provence put forward claims to Aragon's throne; the situation is about to get very messy indeed...

Majardid Caliphate of Andalusia: After centuries of interchanging chaos, Berber tyranny and Christian invasions, Andalusia was reunited after the 13th century Almohad collapse by a native Arab - Majard ibn-Suladi, who proved a military genius, reforming the Andalusian army and leading it to victory over Aragon on several occasions; having succesfully halted the Reconquista, Majard died before he could reverse it; his son Ibrahim I was of a more peaceful inclination, and so he concentrated on internal reform and peace treaties with Leon and Aragon. The 14th century proved a golden age for Andalusia, as its culture soared to even greater heights than before, commerce flourished, and great lands across the Ocean were discovered; later still, both they and Morocco were conquered. The 15th century was likewise a good time, as the colonial and commecial empires of Andalusia expanded further and its rulers claimed the title of "Caliph" in defiance of Persia; however, this was also a time of growing peril, as the previously-friendly relations with Leon detiriorated sharply due to colonial competition, while the Aragonese recklessly attacked Andalusia's Zayanid vassals. Andalusia is still a great power, but it soon may have to fight not just to maintain that status, but for its very survival as well...

Kingdom of Upper Saxony: Traditionally a source of trouble for the HRE, Welfish Saxony greatly suffered and lost in power, wealth and influence as the result of Friedrich Barbarossa's unceasing campaigns against it. The Welfs eventually were expelled to France altogether, and all that remained of Saxony was a much shrunken Imperial domain. During the Flemish War, the Welfs - previously loyal allies of the French monarchs, with holdings in former Normandy - defected to the Norse side in exchange for return of their Saxon lands; in the end, they did get Upper Saxony back, but even now it is an impoverished, war-wrecked, severely unstable region, a battleground of Norse and Swedish diplomats and spies.

Westphalian League: Once a part of Greater Saxony, Westphalia since then had become a completely separate political entity - or, rather, entities - under the Holy Roman Empire. A comparatively quiet and backwater region, Westphalia nevertheless gained greatly in religious and judicial influence in all of Germany. In the Flemish War it was one of the most loyal regions, and Friedrich VI managed to briefly recover there before his final defeat; after it, chaos erupted, and rebellious peasants roamed through Germany. Desperate, the local counts and bishops decided to form a league and make a common front against the rebellious peasantry, succesfully restoring order. Now Westphalia is a quiet, peaceful region, the peasantry rebellious no more, but should war erupt in Germany, this near-idyllia will end, and probably so will the League's independence.

Thuringian Order: Even more backwater than Westphalia, Thuringia remained loyal to the Holy Roman Emperor... until the Battle at Amersfoort, when the strong Thuringian free knighthood rose up with Papal blessing. Defeating both the pro-Imperial nobility and the rebelling peasants, the knights created the Thuringian Order, a military oligarchy infamous for the worst excesses of feudalism. It had managed to expand into some nearby territories, and defeated several more rebellions, but its luck appears to have ran out - they are the next in Bavaria's path.

Kingdom of Bavaria: Since the days of Barbarossa a Wittelsbach realm, Bavaria Proper remained quite loyal to the Imperial Crown and the Hohenstauffens almost to the end. Its fortunes were uneven for these two and a half centuries; at first, it greatly expanded and prospered, later, in the 14th century especially, it lost ground to neighbours, was divided into three and shaken by struggles between the dukes and the urban population. The 15th century saw a dawn; though the initial post-Imperial chaos was terrible as elsewhere, in 1444 Ruprecht I had succesfully reunited Bavaria Proper in a series of campaigns and treaties; having agreed to a partition of the former HRE with Austria (the Austrians being granted a free hand in Italy, the Bavarians - in Germany), he campaigned against various nearby domains and urban republics, eventually stumbling in the Alps and in Thuringia, but consolidating his hold over the lands gained. His immediate heirs weren't either competent or very commited, preffering to lead a life of luxury and consolidate what they already gained, but later, Ruprecht II came to power; he reformed the army along Norse lines, and defeated a Lotharingian invasion. Now, unification of Germany beckons again; but by now, Austria has grown in power considerably, and already begun eyeing some of the Bavarian borderlands...

Swiss Republic: Threatened by expansion of feudal and Imperial power alike, the Swiss people of the Alps were in a state of near-perpetual rebellion since the late 13th century. Though in the 14th, despite winning a string of battles, the rebels were temporarily overwhelmed by superior numbers and mercenaries thrown at them by the Imperials, many of them simply retreated into the mountains and continued fighting; as soon as the Holy Roman Empire broke down, the Swiss rose up in arms once more, and expelled or slaughtered all the nobility and clergy, creating a "commune of equals" (under guidance of radical rabble-rousing priests and philosophers expelled from elsewhere) in reaction to past oppression. Though it was immediately declared an abomination by all of its neighbours, they all proved unwilling and unable to do anything about it; the Swiss Commune collapsed a few years after it was created anyway, after the reformers antagonized most of the population and caused a civil war; eventually, a far more federation of free cities was set up and some degree of reconciliation with Rome was reached. The Republic still is, however, a safe haven for those unwanted elsewhere; also, though it is a small country with few natural enemies (apart from perhaps Habsburg Austria with its claims on most of the Republic's lands), it had fostered a strong military tradition, and its mercenaries have thrived in the chaos.

Holy Austrian Empire: Though expelled from Switzerland never to return (at least, not yet), the Habsburgs gained a new power base in Austria, and soon replaced the Welfs as the leaders of anti-Hohenstauffen opposition, though ofcourse not very vociferous ones until the Flemish War. When that war did come and the HRE fell apart, the Austrians moved quickly, securing Tyrolia and Krain. Under Maximillian II (r. 1440-1480), the Habsburgs managed to procure an alliance with Bavaria, Provence and Aragon, and in concert with them moved to partition Italy; though success there was only partial, the Austrians got a guarantee of their place in history with a well-planned capture of Venice and the victory over joint Italian forces at Viterbo; after that, the Austrians managed to force the election of a puppet Pope in Rome (the bitterly-contested election was the very cause of the Italian War) and attained hegemony in Central Italy, confirmed by declaration of the Holy Austrian Empire. Later still, a break with Provence occured, but the Austrians prevailed yet again, rallying a coalition and checking Provencal power. Since then, however, Austria had stagnated somewhat; most of its former Italian satellites have broken free again, and the Byzantines have checked the Habsburg ambitions for Hungary, while relations with Bavaria detiriorated. Future remains uncertain.

Kingdom of Lombardy: Often a contested region between the various powers struggling for Italy, Lombardy itself was for long divided between Milan and the various other cities. The Hohenstauffens skillfully played the two against each other, whilst themselves concentrating on the conquest of Poland and on wars with France, but eventually, in the 13th century, intervenned when the disturbingly-democratic Milan first got too strong, virtually subjugating the rest of Lombardy. With the help of local rebels and nobles, the Imperials eventually razed Milan, but later rebuilt it, granting power to the Viscontis, who soon proved to be some of the Holy Roman Emperor's most loyal subjects, and accordingly were assisted; in this manner, by the early 15th century, Milan, now a proper duchy, had taken over Lombardy again anyway, although peacefully. In the wake of the Flemish War, the Viscontis made their grand bid for power in northern Italy, but were first checked by their neighbours, and then, in their second attempt (1440s), despite several initial victories such as the capture of Sienna, proved to have only paved the way for the Habsburgs and their allies to invade Italy freely; reluctantly, Matteo II made peace with his enemies, but the combined army thus raised was routed at Viterbo and Matteo II himself fell in battle; Lombardy collapsed into civil strife. Under Ottone IV, however, Lombardy had recovered; Ottone himself became King of Lombardy, though this was only a de jure achievement, and fought back a Provencal invasion with Austrian help; domestically, he oversaw Lombardy's centralization and reconstruction. As Milan recovered its status as Northern Italy's key city, it had also revived its old ambitions; perhaps the Viscontis could unite Italy yet...

Genoan Republic: Though the Middle Ages were a tumultous and uneven time for Genoa, it had worked fruitfully with both France and the HRE; after both collapsed, Genoa temporarily declined, but then, with the capture and sack of its primary opponent city Venice and the decline of secondary opponent Barcelona, suddenly leaped forward into its golden age under the watchful eyes of the Grimaldi Doges; using the economical and political vacuum in the Mediterranean, Genoa soon reached a rewarding agreement with the Byzantine and Leonese Empires, funding their various campaigns in exchange for trading priveleges; later in the 15th century, Genoa succesfully repulsed a few foreign invasions and with pragmatical consent of the Majardids broke into the Atlantic Ocean, soon establishing a noticeable presence in West Africa and Brasil. However, this gained Genoa envy of its neighbours, and it is unclear how well the merchant republic shall fare in the 16th century.

Kingdom of Tuscany: Arguably the cultural center of Italy, Tuscany was first united (to a certain extent) by the Attoni Dynasty; after it died out with Matilda di Canossa, the region was balkanized and saw a seemingly-endless struggle between various city states. For long, Pisa was the predominant power, but eventually it was eclipsed by Genoa on the sea and Florence on the land; the latter attained a loose hegemony in Tuscany, but it was only after the fall of first the Holy Roman Empire and then the Florentine Republic (to the Medicis, whose contemporary leader eventually had himself crowned as King Chiarissimo I of Tuscany, though this monarchy was in many ways a parliamentary/oligarchic one, retaining many traits of the fallen Republic) that it had rose to true greatness; having rallied the opposition to the Viscontis, the Medicis briefly rose to dominate Central Italy in the 15th century, but were considerably thrown back by the Italian War. Nevertheless, they recovered from it, and attained fealty of Pisa, Lucca, Parma and Modena, not without foreign help and promises of considerable autonomy. Presently Tuscany is probably the strongest native Italian state, but it isn't too stable; far from all the rifts between the various Central Italian states have been healed, and several foreign rulers are interested in destroying Florentine power.

The Papal States: since the 11th century, the Papacy remained on uncertain terms with the Holy Roman Empire; depending on who was Pope, who was the Emperor and what was the geopolitical situation, the two either worked together agianst common threats, either tried to overthrow each other, the Papacy itself having been largely responsible for the failed anti-Barbarossan coalition of the 12th century. However, the two rarely fought each other openly; the Emperors knew better than to disturb Italy more than necessary, and the Popes were mostly smart enough to realize that the Holy Roman Empire, though not invincible, was just way too strong militarily to challenge it head-on. Still, the Damocles' Sword of Imperial invasion had frustrated many Papal ambitions, and finally, Pius IV struck a deal with the Norse in the early 15th century; it succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, as both the HRE and France, the two powers that always threatened Italy, collapsed. However, this disturbance in the stability (and the priveleges granted to the Norse Church) weakened the Pope's spiritual authority, while the new round of warfare in Italy, now with various foreign interventions, had undermined the temporal one; the worst came when a contested Papal election was used as a pretext by the Austrians and their allies to invade; Cardinal Eugenio Fieschi, the challenged candidate, tried to organize a pan-Italian coalition, and with Visconti assistance did just that, but it was broken at Viterbo and the election of an Austrian puppet Pope was assured; as if that wasn't bad enough, the next Pope was an Austrian himself! With the Papacy thus weakened and subjugated, many churches outside of Italy, most notably the ones in Sweden and Leon, became de facto autonomous, much like the Norse one. A Papal renaissance is not impossible, but is going to be difficult, especially under the watchful Austrian eyes.

Kingdom of Sweden: While the Norse Empire, France and the HRE rose to power elsewhere, Sweden's ascendance was somewhat quieter at first, and generally was away from public attention until it was too late. Having repulsed Norse attacks in the 12th century, Sweden united under a magnate named Sverker; his heirs infiltrated the Baltic Sea commercially, whilst waging wars with Finnish tribes and Canutian Denmark, from which Skane was conquered. Though the 13th century was a time of internicine strife and more Norse attacks, it was also the time when Sweden trully became an empire, with the Baltic Crusades which allowed Sweden and its vassals to take over large parts of Finland, Estonia and Lettia (Latvia), and also allowed it to challenge the primary Russian city-state, Novgorod, though with mixed success; nevertheless, in the early 14th century, with the defection of Pskov and the Novgorodian defeat at Lake Ilmen, Sweden's Baltic predominance was assured, as the Hanseatic League was considerably weakened by its strife with the Emperor. Having built up a considerable potential, Sweden unleashed it in 1400 under King Valdemar III; Novgorod, for long a vassal state, was formally annexed; two years later, the long-defiant Lithuanians were defeated at Mazeikiai and forced to become a vassal state themselves and abandon all claims on Lettia, Mongol invaders were fought to a standstill at Gomy and lastly Sweden intervenned in the Flemish War on the Norse side, inciting the Hanseatic League to defect and accept Swedish protection; after that, Sweden was in complete, unchallengeable control over the Baltic Sea. This success was followed up by the mid-century invasion and conquest of Brandenburg. Now Sweden is probably the most serious threat to Norse power; already, there were some skirmishes between the two great powers, but it is yet to come to war. As Swedish influence expands into Germany, however, war seems inevitable... Then again, the Swedes have other concerns too - the Prague Confederacy is seeking an outlet to the sea, Galicia is in conflict with Lithuania and the Mongols feel that Sweden is disturbing their spheres of influence. Sweden has potential for hegemony, but there are many powerful enemies en route there.

Prague Confederacy: Though both Bohemia and Poland were gradually conquered by the HRE and colonized by Germans, the Slavic population there was far from defeated, and peasant risings occured again and again. Much like with other rebellious populaces of France and the HRE, the Western Slavs likewise made good use of the Flemish War; this time, the rebellions were led by local nobles, magnates and reformist priests; eventually, not just Poland and Bohemia, but also Lower Saxony and Lusatia were liberated, and the tide was turned as Germans were massacred (especially in Poland, where they were the least numerous; in Lower Saxony, predictably enough, the Germans held out quite well and even fought back, though eventually Saxony was recaptured). After the initial chaos subsided, the Polish and Bohemian nobility rallied around Siemowit Tarnowski, who had created a Prague-based noble federation - a somewhat belated feudal state, with the king (obviously, Siemowit I) only the first amongst equals. This state, even after reconciliation with the Catholic Church and the German populations, does not seem to be very stable or durable in its present state, but if a strong leader and good allies are found, Poland's immense potential may not go unused after all...

Duchy of Lithuania: Though hard-pressed by the Swedish crusaders, the Lithuanians managed to fight back with some success in the 13th century and formed an independent Duchy of their own in the south, around Vilnius. From there the Lithuanians moved on in an attempt to conquer Russia, but were checked by Mongols and Galicians, despite making some initial gains. In the 14th century, Lithuania once more found itself at war with Swedes; ultimately it surrendered and had to accept vassal status, receiving protection against the Mongols in exchange. As Swedes are increasingly distracted in the west, it may be the time to rise up and perhaps reclaim the ancestral lands; but then again, it may be best to remain Swedish vassals for a while, and under this cover make another attempt to conquer Russia.

Tsardom of Galicia: The only Russian state to escape Swedish or (long-term) Mongol domination, Galicia-Lodomeria had also avoided falling to either the Hungarians or the Byzantines; nonetheless, the Galicians had come under a certain amount of influence from both - while the Galician culture was very much influenced by the Byzantines, the reformed armies of Daniel III were definitely inspired by the Hungarians and the Galician Hussars would become as famous as the Hungarian ones. Though to survive the Galicians at first had to pay tribute to the Mongols, as already implied this did not last long; after the end of the Golden Horde's heyday and the Mongol defeat at Liegnitz, the Galicians immediately broke with the Mongols and fought back several attacks, both by the Mongols and later by the resurgent Hungarians. Since then, the peaceful, industrious Galicians gradually begun to transform into a warrior people, with a formidable military tradition; thus, surrounded by enemies, they survived, and in the 14th century - expanded. After the Byzantine alliance with the Mongols ended, the two strongest surviving Orthodox nations allied and under Daniel III the Mongols were decisively defeated at Oltava; soon after that battle, Kiev was reclaimed, and as the Golden Horde fell into civil war, the Galicians eventually advanced all the way to the Don again. In the late 15th century, after a comparatively brief age of Galician greatness during which clashing imperial ambitions led to war with the Byzantines and other Russian principalities, the Golden Horde was suddenly revitalized and Nostradat Khan razed Vladimir and Moscow, and was only barely stopped outside of Kiev; frightened, the Galicians had no choice but to reconcile with the Byzantines, whose assistance proved crucial in saving Galicia and by extent Europe from a new Mongolian invasion. By now Galicia has recovered, while the Golden Horde is shaking again; soon shall be the time to reunite Russia, but it would seem that there shall be strong competition... and also, is it at all safe to trust the wily Byzantines?

Kingdom of Hungary: Potentially the hegemon power of Eastern Europe, Hungary was prevented from taking this role again and again - first by its neighbours, then by the Mongols, then by dynastic strife, after that, by its neighbours again, later, by the Black Death... and now, by a new round of dynastic struggles! Plagued by unpopular foreign dynasties and corrupt, manipulative magnates that are in control of the Diet, Hungary's inherently unstable system of electoral monarchy caused dynasties to change every next decade; eventually, in 1466, that led to a civil war and the ruling Angevin king was overthrown by a Hohenstauffen, who was then overthrown by a Hunyadi, who massacred all the magnates he could find, but was killed by a personal enemy soon after. Hungary fell into anarchy; all this was the Time of Troubles, which ended with Austrian and Byzantine intervention in the 1480s; eventually the Byzantines defeated the Austrians who had tried to impose a Habsburg ruler, and put Benedek I Pesti (an important Hungarian nobleman of pro-Byzantine sympathies who was unmarried until now) on the throne, with a Byzantine princess as his consort ofcourse. Order was restored, but Hungary remains in ruins and in the middle of a severe demographic crisis, with rebellious minorities, conspiring noblemen and greedy foreigners - especially the Austrians - seeking to renew the Time of Troubles to put a puppet ruler of their own on the throne.

Byzantine Empire: Centuries of luck and prosperity alternated with those of decline for Byzantium. In the 11th century, the Byzantines underwent a revival, they fought back a variety of foes on all their borders and reconquered the Balkans; in the 12th, Venetian, Hungarian and Turkish onslaught was only barely slowed down, and the Byzantines declined; in the 13th, things were little better at first, but the restored Ducas Dynasty managed to eventually revive the Byzantine fortunes and retake lost ground in the Aegean and East Anatolia; also, the Byzantine pact with the Mongols allowed the former to turn the tables on both the Turks and the Hungarians, and for once success continued into the next century as well; in the 1380s, under Manuel IX Ducas, the Byzantines ascended to a new zenith; southern Italy and the Levant were reconquered, and later on, so was Egypt. However, the Byzantines severely overstretched themselves, and the general chaos and instability of the early 15th century reached the Eastern Empire as well. Renewed succession problems caused a civil war, which was immediately exploited by Aragon, Galicia and Venice (fortunately the latter was suddenly conquered by the Austrians); also, soon enough a major rebellion in the Islamic provinces begun, Greek colonists and garrisons were overran, and the Muwahhidun Empire was born. Only in 1439 did the Byzantines begin to recover, as the Comnenus Dynasty came to power again. Under Isaac III Comnenus, Calabria and Aleppo were recaptured, and considerable gains were made in the Balkans, with the conquest of Wallachia, Moldavia and chaos-struck Croatia; Demetrius I Comnenus had encouraged a cultural renaissance, military reforms and intervenned in Hungary to impose the rise of a "friendly" Pesti dynasty. All-in-all, the Byzantine Empire, despite failing to hold on to Levant, seems to be safe for now. But then again, these are volatile, dangerous times...

Principality of Kostroma: Forged out of eastern Novgorodian and northern Vladimirian territories after the fall of those two great Russian principalities, and united around the northern trade center of Kostroma, this principality rose in the 15th century with Mongol assistance. Despite its size and strategic position, it is in fact quite weak and backwards, and greatly depends on the assistance of the revived Golden Horde; as said Horde seems to be again reverting into chaos, Kostroma doesn't seem to have a future...

Principality of Tver: Tver was traditionally at daggers drawn with Moscow, and its near-defeat at Muscovite hands in the mid-15th century had caused Knyaz Boris I to plead for Nostradat Khan's assistance. This greatly assisted the renaissance of the Golden Horde; Moscow was burned after a ferocious struggle, and Tver became a Mongol vassal and ally again, its forces participating in the ensuing wars with Galicia. As with Kostroma, appearences are misleading; Tver is fairly prosperous, advanced due to contact with Sweden and has a small, but very well-trained military. Should the Golden Horde fall, Tver will be in the best position to use this; nevertheless, it is not very likely that it could really fight back Galicia or Lithuania on its own at the present moment. With some cunning diplomacy, however, Tver does stand a chance, how ever small, to become a viable regional power...

Khanate of the Golden Horde: The European segment of the greater Mongol Empire, it was prevented from expanding beyond Russia by succession problems and staunch Imperial resistance, but itself defeated all the attempts to dislodge it from its holdings. Remaining a formidable military force, the Golden Horde detiriorated due to the Black Death and internal strife, and in the late 14th/early 15th centuries almost ceased to exist, allowing Galicia and Sweden to expand further into Russia. However, in 1468-1480, a strong ruler finally emerged from the mess left behind by the Golden Horde's perturbances - Nostradat Khan, who renewed the Horde by bringing new blood into it - that of the Kazakhs and Turkmen, with whom he allied after his initial defeat when he was the Khan of Astrakhan. After conquering Central Asia, he returned with a vengeance, crushed all resistance and officially took power as the Khan of the Golden Horde in Sarai Berke (New Sarai). From there he moved on to reconquer eastern Russia and the Caucasus, although his attempts to advance further were fought to a standstill. Sadly, he died in 1489, before he could either go on a new campaign or put into place some proper domestic reforms; fortunately his son Mamai Khan wasn't completely incompetent, and managed to hold the Horde together for now; yet as it has many internal and external enemies, it is unlikely that it will survive for much longer, at least without some major changes...

 

[das]

Zayanid Sultanate: Formerly loyal vassals of the Almohads, then, after a brief period of independence, loyal vassals of the Almohad successors - the Majardids. It is a rather weak (due to the shortage of manpower) Berber state, but in recent times it achieved prosperity due to advantageous strategic position of one of its primary cities, Tlemcen, a key segment of the trans-Saharan trade routes. If expansion westwards is unthinkable, northwards - impossible and eastwards - very difficult, then perhaps expansion southwards is the way to go? Though weak, the Zayanids do not entirely lack in potential...

Hafsid Sultanate: A proud Berber warrior realm, the Hafsid Sultanate is fairly strong, prospering and has a good strategic position, but lacks any allies whatsoever; the Muwahidduns don't really think the Hafsids (or anybody else for that matter, apart from themselves) human, the Zayanids and their Majardid allies have already fought several wars against them, and the Genoese see them as heathens and what's worse - competitors. But not all is lost; the Hafsids are in the same place as ancient Carthage, and thus have similar opportunities; also, in recent times relations between them and the Byzantines have been improving suspiciously...

Mali Empire: Since the 13th century predominant in West Africa, the great trading empire of the Mali however begun to decline immediately upon reaching its 14th century zenith, and in the 15th century, the trade network brought the empire down with it - or nearly so. That was a century of near collapse; several key cities defected, rebelled or were captured by barbarians, and Mali was generally forced to shift southwestwards, especially as to northeast, the new Songhay Empire replaced its predominance along the Niger River and took over the Saharan trade. However, in the southwest, Mali gained a brief break; it befriended and traded with the Majardids, causing the sea port of Cacheu to become a great trade center. Perhaps not all is lost, and past glory could be reclaimed?

Songhay Empire: The successors to the Malinese Empire on the Niger, Songhay people have for long lie inert in Gao; after first its conquest by the Malinese and later its succesful rebellion, the Songhay Empire was born under Sulaiman-Mar, and later, for real, under 'Ali Ber who repulsed Gao's various barbarian neighbours and conquered Timbuktu and Djenne. Despite some strife after his death, Songhay remains strong, and is now preparing for the final clash with the suddenly-resurgent Mali.

Kingdom of Bornu: Successor to the earlier Kanem Empire (of which Bornu was a province), Bornu has thus far warded off all of the enemies that tried to conquer its comparatively wealthy and good territroies, but its long-term survival is far from assured.

Kingdom of Benin: For long a weak, primitive tribal state, Benin under Ewuare the Great underwent great transformation, becoming a hereditary monarchy, conquering several nearby territories and greatly befriending their Majardid trading partners. Benin has undergone some modernization, adapting more advanced technology with Majardid assistance, but it remains a rather weak and backwards state - yet on the other hand it only seems so on the world scale, as none of Benin's present neighbours are even nearly a match for it.

Kingdom of Kongo: Presently the most advanced and coherent of the Bantu states, Kongo, as an empire based on trade, has prospered greatly when the Genoese and the Majardids arrived, trading with both and acting as middlemen between them and the inland tribes. Commercial competition here and elsewhere in Africa has driven something of a wedge in Genoese-Majardid relations; as a result, both sides begun seeking political supporters here, and on the background, a struggle for the souls of the yet-pagan Kongolese is ongoing, as both Muslim and Christian missionaries arrive in ever-greater numbers, much to the dissent of the natives.

Muwahhidun Empire of Egypt: Ever since the collapse of the degenerated Fatimid Empire in the mid-13th century, Egypt - and the Levant - were in chaos, with short-lived local empires, constant nomad attacks, Mongol invasions and finally, in the later 14th century, a complete Byzantine conquest; no wonder that, no matter how bad the later Fatimid era was, it eventually came to be idolized by the people as something of a golden age. And of all the legends of that day, the most popular one was that of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, the great Caliph who shall one day return to inaguarate a new, true golden age; no wonder, then, that when the Egyptians rose up and drove out the Byzantine conquerors, the ones to take control of the rebel masses were the ones who believed in al-Hakim's divinity, those who called themselves the Muwahhiduns and who were also known as... the Druzes. Led by a man called Korkmaz, who declared himself Imam and al-Hakim's regent, the Druzes established an ultra-theocratic regime in Egypt, and with surprising speed and ruthlessness suppressed the Sunnites and pretty much all other Muslim movements in their lands.. With their traditional emphasis on hierarchy, subordination and cohesion, the Druzes managed to build a strong, if highly oppressive, state and a modern, extremelly well-disciplinned military which pushed the Byzantines out of virtually the entire Levant; the elite Muwahhidun forces proceeded to crush all resistance, and conquer, within the rest of the 15th century, Hejjaz, Yemen, the realms of the Lower Nile and Abyssinia; also, as dissent begun to grow after the failure of a golden age to arrive, the Muwahhidum Empire transformed into a model totalitarian state (to what extent this WAS possible at the time), with an efficient suppression apparatus, a dedicated elite and massive public works at the expense of commerce and living standards. With the southern campaigns brought to a logical conclusion, it would seem that the Muwahhidun Empire shall soon either stagnate, decline and eventually collapse as is hoped by most of its neighbours, either continue its thus far succesful struggle with all around it, striking into Arabia, Anatolia or the Mediterranean...

Sultanate of Adal: For long was Adal a weak, if martial, state, deadlocked in its wars with Abyssinia, wars that tied down all of its resources for no gain but survival. This ended when the Muwahhidun Empire - not out of any good feelings for Adal, but simply because Abyssinia got in its way - conquered the Ethiopian Highlands, allowing Adal to safely take over the lands to the southeast from there and settle down in peace. Having since then gained a certain degree of prosperity, Adal is now eyeing greedily the wealthy Swahili cities of the Zanzibar Sultanate.

Sultanate of Zanzibar: All the Swahili city-states were melting pots of Islamic cultures - African, Persian and Arabic - but none of them were quite as, uh, meltingpotty and as prosperous as Zanzibar, on the island of the same name. With its far-reaching trade network, powerful (by local standards) navy and excellent strategic position, Zanzibar became the natural capital of East Africa, which was united in the 14th century as a side-effect of the great turmoil caused in the Muslim Indian Ocean by the Byzantine reconquest of the Levant. The general decline of commerce led to fiercer economic competition, whilst social strife resulted in several dynasty changes; eventually, economic and social strife moved to a political level, and from there - to a series of intensified conflicts. Under the new Hadimi Dynasty, founded by Farid Hadimi, Zanzibar came out on top as a result of this struggle; after its mercenaries sacked Mombasa in 1357, the other city-states surrendered as well, in exchange for retaining considerable autonomy and local laws (it would have been quite difficult to establish centralized control over the entire East African coast anyway). United around what some termed "the Carthage of the Indian Ocean" or "the Swahili Srivijaya", East Africa trully entered the world stage for the first time since the fall of Axum; for Zanzibar's commercial empire was, for various reasons, beginning to transform into a colonial one, extending eastwards and securing various islands there; perhaps the greatest sign of Zanzibar's new ascendancy was the recent conquest of Calicut and several other parts of Malabar Coast; but Zanzibar isn't at its zenith yet.

Gilanid Shahdom/Caliphate of Persia: After three centuries of Turkic and Mongol rule, a native Persian dynasty, the Gilanids, picked up what remained after the disastrous, incompetent rule of the il-Khans, or, rather, as nothing really remaiend from them, simply reunited Persia in a series of well-executed campaigns in the early 15th century, removing the Turkic and Mongol warlords from power. The Gilanids proved enlightened and competent rulers (then again, they had a favourable background), and fostered a new Persian cultural renaissance, in combination with domestic reforms and the creation of a pseudo-meritocracy under their second ruler, Tahmasp I. Having already claimed the title of Shah, Tahmasp I nonetheless also took the title of Caliph with the backing of the Arabian clergy; after the Druze revolution in Egypt, Persia became the strongest Sunni power left in the world, though possibly Andalusia, another Caliphate, was its equal. In any case, taking in Sunni refugees from Egypt, Persia soon prospered indeed, even moreso after its modernized military conquered Oman. Following a pragmatic foreign policy, the Gilanids have recently befriended the Byzantines, as both had mutual enemies in the Golden Horde and in the Muwahhidun Empire.

Sultanate of Delhi: Founded by the Ghurid commander Mu'izz-ud-Din Muhammad ibn Sam, the Sultanate of Delhi - one of the greatest Turkic states thus far - has seen the rule of several dynasties. Its first ascendance was under the slave-sultan Iltutmish; sadly, his successors had failed to defend what he had gained, and instead fought a lenghty, exhausting civil war. Late 13th-early 14th centuries saw the rule of the Khaljis, who had come to control, directly or not, the greater part of the Indian sub-continent; they were followed by Muhammad ibn Tughluq, who lost the southernmost territories to the Bahmanis, but in the north fought back a Mongol invasion and introduced reforms to establish a centralized, benevolent Muslim-dominated monarchy; though his attempts to Islamify India resulted in many rebellions, he achieved partial success with the help of refugees fleeing from the war-torn Middle East. The Tughluqids ruled on into the 15th century, failing to recover Deccan, and eventually losing some other territories, as the empire grew ever more decentralized and stagnant. A brief renaissance was achieved in the middle 15th century under Husayn I Tawfiqi, an usurper general, but in truth, Delhi still only looks strong, despite the best efforts of its rulers, it has again devolved into a feudal confederacy, and the slightest shake of the central authority might cause it to implode.

Bahmani Sultanate: Created by local Muslim nobles in defiance of Muhammad ibn Tughluq's centralization efforts, the Bahmani Sultanate soon enough became a centralized state itself; under Muhammad Shah I, it begun its expansionist agenda, conquering several lesser states and assuming control over much of central India with remarkably good use of artillery, but the revival of Delhi, rise of Vijayanagara and internal troubles prevented any further expansion in the 14th century. In the 15th century, despite having to fend off the attack of the aggressive of the southern Delhian "governors" (read warlords), further gains were made as Telingana was completely annexed and Vijayanagara pushed back, while wazir Mahmud Gawan instituted several reforms aimed at centralization and self-strenghthening. However, later still into the century, petty intrigues and internicine strife yet again stopped Bahmani expansion. However, the conquest of western coastal areas has recently allowed the Bahmanis to participate in the general Indian Ocean commercial revival, and close ties were established with the Sultanate of Zanzibar; if the process of regional separation is stopped or reversed, the Bahmani Sultanate will have pretty good chances for a general revival and perhaps then Vijayanagara itself could finally be brought to its knees!

Vijayanagaran Empire: Formed to oppose Muslim (first Delhian, later Bahmani) conquest of Deccan, Vijayanagara has become perhaps the first state to unite virtually all of this traditionally-balkanized region. A strong, centralized empire of remarkable grandeur, Vijayanagara greatly prospered throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, but militarily, its fortunes were uneven, Goa and the Krishna-Tungabhadra doab becoming perpetually-contested territories between it and the Bahmanis, changing hands time and again. The later 15th century saw a final decisive result, and it was a one that favoured the Bahmanis - they secured all the contested territories, taking advantage of Vijayanagara's increasing decentralization after the rule of emperor Devaraya; all this and the Zanzibari conquest of Malabar crippled Vijayanagara's commerce, and much like Delhi, the formidable empire seems to be on the brink of total collapse; fortunately, the Bahmanis aren't much better off.

Sri Lanka: For much of the Middle Ages, Sri Lanka passed between various weak native and foreign rulers, eventually breaking up into several separate kingdoms/city-states and thus becoming very vulnerable to invasion. It was only after the brief late 15th century Vijayanagaran rule - and the ensuing anarchy - that some semblance of unity was achieved again under Kandy, the one kingdom that remained unconquered for all the time; nevertheless, the island remains highly decentralized, weak and unstable; in its present state, it is ripe for picking, though it is not too late for it to alter that state and perhaps even become a colonial power in and of itself.

Yuan Empire: Probably the primary successor state to Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire (by the virtue of controlling Mongolia itself, amongst other things), the Yuan Empire is a curious mix of the Mongol tradition with those of the various conquered peoples, most notably the Chinese; in theory a meritocratic melting pot (obviously, this is rather harder to achieve in practice), the Yuan Empire has combined the Chinese bureaucratic tradition with the Mongolian and Jurchen military one, and is thus very formidable indeed, if not for the continued dissent both amongst the various conquered peoples and amongst the conservative Mongol tribes themselves; this and internicine strife greatly weakened the Yuan, especially in the 14th century. However, back in the 13th one, under Kublai Khan, the Yuan have all but conquered both China and Japan; however, the Song used their technological prowess and natural defenses to greatly slow down the Yuan advance, and bad weather had crippled the Yuan fleet, also, Kublai Khan died unopportunately in battle with the Chinese. Though the Song dynasty soon collapsed anyway, the 14th century Mongol civil wars and stagnation allowed a new Chinese dynasty to rise, the Min, who later nearly reconquered all of China Proper. In the early 15th century, however, the increasingly weak, decadent and "Sinified" Ghenghisids were overthrown by the more brutal and barbaric, and also more vigorous Khasarids, led by Galdhan Khan, who had defeated the Min outside of Tatu, and defeated several rebellions. Though his invasions of China mostly failed, he succeeded elsewhere - he had conquered Japan. Sadly, his heirs too weren't terribly competent, and lost Japan, but the Yuan-Min war now stalemated south of the Huang He, and all the Min attempts to expel the Yuan altogether had failed. It remains to be seen whether this "Three Hundred Years War" would ever come to a decisive conclusion or not.

Min Empire: Successors to the Song Dynasty, the Min have succesfully revived and reformed China, mixing Song commercialism and innovation with strong, autocratic rule and a military tradition encouraged by the Mongol presence in the north. Using the time gained by the Mongol civil wars to rebuild southern China and create a strong new army, the Min have in the late 13th century come close to expelling the Mongols from China. Though ultimately, they only reconquered Central China, great gains were made elsehere; Japan was vassalized, Annam was properly subdued and several islands were conquered by the new Min fleet, built to counter the Yuan one. However, the war with the Yuan remains the main concern for the Min, preventing them from making full use of the opportunities in South-East Asia...

Japanese Empire: For long existing in semi-isolation, Japan was forcefully opened up when, conspiring with some discontent feudal lords, Galdhan Khan succesfully invaded Japan in the early 15th century, overthrowing the Shogunate and vassalizing the Emperor through puppet ministers. Since then, Japan became a part of the ongoing Yuan-Min wars for the control of China; fearful that Nagasaki might become a staging ground for a maritime invasion of China, the Min built up a fleet of their own, captured Okinawa and begun conspiring with the discontent Japanese nobles and soon enough incited a destructive civil war in Japan, in which both the Yuan and the Min intervenned; in the end, the Min won first the naval war, and then landed a huge expeditionary corps that gradually forced the restoration of the Shogunate; naturally, the Shogun received Min advisors as well... With Min help and urban support, the restored Shogunate had concentrated on centralization; thus, the Yuan are the ones presently backing the various conspiracies of provincial Japanese nobles, but so far, none of them had succeeded. Then again, there are rumours that the Shogun, wary of Min control, is himself secretly corresponding the Yuan Emperor... Could the Japanese play the mainlanders off against each other? Or will the opposite continue?

Kingdom of Ava: Ava is the continuer of Pagan's great cultural and political tradition; culturally it is in, if not golden, then at least silver age, but sadly it, much like the Indian states, lacks in political cohesiveness and unity, effective control being only exercised in the Irrawaddy Valley itself, and the prosperous southern ports being ever more separatistic (and actually autonomous). Its fierce Shan barbarian vassals in the north - the very same that had once ruined Pagan - are now increasingly turning from vassals to masters, having recently begun to demand tribute and force favourable decisions by the Avan kings.

Kingdom of Ayutthaya: Having eclipsed, conquered and in a way replaced the Khmers, Ayutthaya has, by contrast to Ava, become a heavily-centralized, absolutist bureaucratic state with a king cult. Under the great mid-15th century King Trailok, Ayutthaya not only repulsed a Min Chinese invasion, but also signed an alliance with the Yuan (later disbanded, but friendly relations remained) and conquered Lan Na and Melaka. Though the latter was temporarily lost by his successors, the army, reformed along Yuan lines, had, in combination with some well-managed diplomacy, placed the entire Malay Peninsula under Thai rule in the end of the previous century. Now Ayutthaya stands at the crossroads; Ava, Chinese Annam and Atjeh all beckon to the ascendant imperial power; where shall the legions of the god-kings march next?

Sultanate of Atjeh: After the Ayutthayan conquest of Malaya and the Malayu civil war, Atjeh, Islam's first outpost in South-East Asia, has become a great trade center and the capital of a middling, but rising sultanate. However, its rise is likely to be cut short by one thing or another; then again, likelihood is not ineluctable necessity, and a visionary ruler may yet turn Atjeh into a great empire.

Empire of Malayu: After the slow, painful death of Srivijaya in the late 13th-early 14th centuries, a fortunately-brief dark age came to Indonesia; brief, for soon enough the city of Malayu came to predominate Sumatra, while Java was united around Kadiri. The two empires built naturally-clashing colonial empires; in the eventual war, despite the early naval defeats, the Malayuns made good use of the Kadiri Empire's instability, caused by Java's multipolarity (there were several cities there, and Kadiri hegemony was very challengeable); while the Kadiri dealt with the rebellion of Kutaraja, the Malayuns recovered their military fortunes and with the help of Malay mercenaries first secured the Kadiri colonies on Borneo, and later invaded Java, razing Kadiri itself after a furious battle. Though establishing control over Java itself was a long and ardous process, gradually, through treaties, violence and threats of violence, the proud island was subdued - for now. In the 15th century, however, as trade routes shifted away from Malayu, it entered a general decline. Though it had survived the 1460s-1470s civil war, the Empire of Malayu remains very unstable now, even as the economy is picking up; separatism is high even in some parts of Sumatra itself, to say nothing of Java or Borneo.

 

[das]

Right. Feel free to trim these if you want, Thlayli.

Now, you wanted the main cultural centers? Okay. In North Avalon: Caer Meriadoc (near OTL Quebec), Nochi (the Natchez capital), Tula/Tollan (historic Toltec capital, now under Iberian rule).

In South Avalon (or Karibistan, as some Andalusians call it): Majarda (near Orinoco's delta), Cuzco (Incan capital).

In Europe: Gallway/Gaillimh, Yorvick, Toulouse, Avignon, Toledo, Seville/Ixvillia, Uppsala, Prague, Milan, Florence, Rome, Kiev, Constantinople.

In Africa: Tunis, Timbuktu, Bacongo (Kongolese capital), al-Iskandariyah/Alexandria, Zanzibar.

In Asia: Damascus, Mecca, Baghdad, Shiraz, Samarkand, Agra, Vijayanagar, Tatu, Chengdu, Shanghai, Kyoto, Ava, Ayutthaya, Atjeh.

 

[Swissempire]

Only one question and one minor mistake.

Question: WHy would the Pope give them autonomy of Church. At the time the main Papal goal was making money and gaining power. They had so much money they could probable bought him. I know you can't change it, i just wanted an explainiation.

Comment: Its Capetians, not Capeting.....

 

[Insane_Panda]

Very nice descriptions, rather lengthy, though.

The Byzantine Empire looks very enticing

 

[Thlayli]

Das, those descriptions are great! I will have to cut them down a bit, perhaps. One more thing, I need the religious centers. I'd assume Rome and Mecca, and the center of the Gaelic (Irish?) Rite, but can you suggest any others? I only need 2 or 3 per continent, excluding the Americas.

 

[Swissempire]

It seems Mecca is a cultural center. YOu should make Medina the Cultural Center and Mecca the Religious one

 

[Thlayli]

I'd probably make Medina an economic center.

EDIT: I'm adding the cultural centers now. Almost all the nations in the colonization phase are green, (Ireland, Brittany, Andalusia, Genoa,) so I'm changing Brittany to a light blue.

I'm stuck between making Constantinople a cultural or religious center, but I'm leaning towards the latter.

 

[Thlayli]

Ok, since the uploader isn't working, I'll use imageshack:



Cities I'm not sure about the placement of: Avignon, Uppsala, Majarda, Prague, Timbuktu, Chengdu. Just let me know if I put the cultural centers in the wrong place. I'm not exactly sure where Tatu is.

So far I have Constantinople, Rome, and Mecca as religious centers. I'll need 3 or so more for Asia, and maybe I should add Gallway as well.

 

[Disenfrancised]

Columbus' sailors mutiny and kill him...a bit bloody for my taste.

Eh someone else will do it a few years later - what you need to do is make the circumstances in europe such that transatlantic trips aren't attempted.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

A few failures in a row will discourage people.

Penguin spaceships superheating the atlantic, causing massive storms to destroy all attempting passerby for a few hundred years.

 

[silver 2039]

Eh someone else will do it a few years later - what you need to do is make the circumstances in europe such that transatlantic trips aren't attempted.

Bloody warfare raging throughout continetal Europe would be sufficent wouldn't it. Maybe Britian would need to suffer some type of disaster or something to weaken it alos and retain Scotland, Ireland, and Welsh independence.

 

[das]

Question: WHy would the Pope give them autonomy of Church. At the time the main Papal goal was making money and gaining power. They had so much money they could probable bought him. I know you can't change it, i just wanted an explainiation.

See OTL Papal relations with France. The Pope's main goal in this timeline, as of late 14th/early 15th century, was survival in the face of ever-stronger HRE. Also, don't forget that the Norse didn't request Papal help, the Pope contacted them himself. How do you expect him to behave when begging for help? Do you think the Norse would've listened to his envoys had they said: "The Pope asks you to give him lots of cash, AND destroy the Holy Roman Empire!"?

Comment: Its Capetians, not Capeting.....

Opinions vary on that matter. In a Norse-dominated world, they might as well go down in history as "Capetings".

Very nice descriptions, rather lengthy, though.

I know, which is why Thlayli will trim them a bit.

The Byzantine Empire looks very enticing

A certain Germano-American NESer might protest.

I only need 2 or 3 per continent, excluding the Americas.

You seem to have figured out the Americas anyway. I'm having some problems with the tri-city system, as many cities were all three. Cairo will work as a religious center, as will Gao. In the Middle East: Mecca, Ecbatana (one of centers of Persian Renaissance), Agra. In the Far East, whatever could qualify as religious centers there in OTL. Frankly that's not what I specialize in, I suppose Karakorum, Lhasa and Ayutthaya will work.

Avignon

Damn, it would seem that its not on the map.

Uppsala

Don't worry, you got it right.

Majarda

As I said, its at Orinoco's delta. In OTL there was a mildly-obscure town named Pedernales there, if it helps. Majarda is the administrative and cultural center of Andalusian America.

Prague

Sorry, its the capital of Prague Confederation. I should've known that it's too hard to guess.

Timbuktu

Well its certainly not in Gao. Try the city to the west.

Chengdu

Arrgh. Sorry, got used to its location after playing with alex994 too long... Its in Min territory, south of the Huang He.

Tatu

Its Beijing, damnit, its Beijing!

Other mistakes: there shouldn't be a cultural center in Munich, Baghdad is in the south, so is Agra.

Btw, you might also want to change some trade centers in accordance with the descriptions themselves.

Not sure how this discussion switched to Columbus, but see the beginning of the DisNES II timeline; I included a historiographic rant on the issue in the beginning, consider that my final opinion.

Bloody warfare raging throughout continetal Europe would be sufficent wouldn't it. Maybe Britian would need to suffer some type of disaster or something to weaken it alos and retain Scotland, Ireland, and Welsh independence.

Its precisely what happened in OTL, if you are forgetful. And to a certain extent, both the English weakening and the other wars only HELPED the discovery of the New World.

 

[Symphony D.]

As long as it wasn't possible to go overland to Asia and people were having to sail every which way to get there, it seems to me inevitable that someone would have tried a "shortcut" going the other way. America's a lot closer than Asia and it's a pretty rational idea. Nobody actually believed the Earth was flat. (that's a lie they tell you in grade school to make you be more in awe of history - Columbus wasn't some great sailor either; nor was he a saint, having shot his bastard son with a Native American woman out of a cannon after having proclaimed him a sin in the eyes of God). The main problem was people forgot its circumference. With those two facts combined it seems really likely to me that if not Columbus, somebody else with more prestige would have secured funding from somebody (people will always jump at offers of "I will make you richer / more powerful than any of your peers" if you sell it right), unless you want to presume really quite bad luck on the part of everyone else.

 

[Thlayli]

Ok, fixing map mistakes. Please reserve nations here if you like. (Das and Dis get their first choices, for obvious reasons. )