silver 2039
Deity
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- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
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Well the Pontic and Smyrna area can be considered to be Greek.
NES2 VI - Last Semblance of Order.
- Thread starter das
- Start date
Well the Pontic and Smyrna area can be considered to be Greek.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
Dachspmg said:
A likely story - I'm sure we'll see the 'truth' of it when Byzantine boots march on Ankara once more!
.Hmm das has gone offline - dinner? break? or done for the night? the horror of uncertainty!
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
Its like 11:14 where das lives, I would assume he's done....
and it 11:45 here argh....
and it 11:45 here argh....
silver 2039
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2003
- Messages
- 16,208
According to my computer in Ekaiternikeberhgoplish its 12:25....which is weird. Because I thought Indian timezone was ahead of Ural....bloody computer.
Disenfrancised
Beep Beep
Dachspmg said:And it's Ancyra, not "Ankara".
Actually I believe its most ancient pronouncation sounds something more like "Shutupyou" let me see if I can find a citation...
Symphony D.
Deity
Yeah, just dying to see how badly my 20 minute plan turned out. I actually had a dream I was somehow reduced to 1 Division and 1 Squadron. 
Go, go update!
Go, go update!
das
Regeneration In Process
Update 8 - Year 1748
Non-Military Events:
As per the Acapulco Articles, a.k.a. the Articles of Union, the EUA is decentralized even further (-1 Centralization, +1 Confidence).
The plebiscite in Ecuador supported the region's annexation into the EUA as opposed to the Incan Empire, whereas the plebiscite in Chile has an inconclusive result due to: a) the lack of an independence option, which by then was the most popular and b) the Portuguese war effort against the la Plata (see military events).
With the temporary recession of Franco-Russian tensions, both sides begin to feel the financial and the morale prices of maintaining such large militaries (-1 Economy, Confidence both). As does the Byzantine Empire (same for it).
Europe settles down after the War of Spanish Dissolution, the Krakow War and countless earlier and/or smaller conflicts.
(see spotlight)
(+1 French Culture, -1 German Confidence, Culture, +1 Russian Confidence, -1 Swedish Confidence, -Split economic center, +1 Spanish, Papal Culture)
The Danish-Norwegian Fatherland Party wins yet another re-election. Notably, the Norwegian separatists, the "socialists" and the conservatives all rose in influence somehow along with the FP, while the royalists and the People's Party declined. To be entirely honest, none but the Danes cared much about this. Much more interesting was the Copenhagen World Fair, clearly inspired by the Universal Exposition, but it, compared to the Exposition, went by rather boringly, apart from the facts of American attendance and recognition and the Chinese part of the fair where, firstly, anti-Japanese propaganda was incessantly spewed out causing many a scandal, and, secondly, ancient Chinese technologic achievements were showed off, quite inspiringly for many European scientists and Orientalists alike. Anyway, things were mostly peaceful (+1 Danish, German, Abyssinian, Mughal Education).
The dramatic growth of education in Germany, combined with the defeat in the Krakow War and the movement of the capital to the unpopular Berlin, causes a rise of dissent under "communitalist" (see above, see spotlight) lines and of local nationalism (-1 Confidence, Culture). The Sicherheit Ministry, however, cracks down succesfully on the revolutionary movements...
Large-scale investments and years of patient development allowed the rise of a new great industrial center at Veliky Novgorod and of trade - in Odessa (+Novgorod, Odessa economic centers).
A great triumph was scored by the French science, as the Canal de L'Egyptien is finished (+Suez economic center, +1 Confidence).
The European education program begins to bear fruit for Abyssinia (+1 Education). So do the missionary efforts in the south, as Catholicism spreads and several local tribes agree to pledge loyalty to the Negus Negusti, even providing some troops (+1 irregular division).
After the Restoration of the West, the Mughals, quite unexpectedly, introduce a series of decentralizing reforms in their north-west, though at the same time they were used to consolidate their power through the semi-autonomous local rulers (-1 Centralization, +1 Culture).
A patriotic wave - encouraged by the Qing - overtakes China Proper (+1 Culture). Also, Shanghai is mostly restored as a great economic center (+Shanghai economic center), though the other centers "neutralized" by the Japanese, being much more specialized on oversea trade, remained quite useless.
Japanese-held Taipei emerges as a trade center in the wake of the crippling of Chinese commerce (+Taipei economic center).
Military Events:
Small patrols, merchants and officials that for whatever reason chose to travel through the inland central parts of the French North American colonies came under sporadic, enigmatic attacks that have been attributed by some to the Amerinds, and by some - to the local anti-government forces. Further investigation is needed, though this is yet to become anything more than a nuisance, and a rather smallish one at that.
Despite Garcia Alvarez' desperate attempts to rally his troops and raise an "armada popular" out of the non-Amerinds in Venezuela (+5 irregular divisions), the Grenadine rebels were quite doomed. The American forces besieging Caracas beat back a few poorly-organized Grenadine attacks and secured more of the countryside around the city, while despite the "armada popular"'s guerrila efforts the American armies in Colombia sucesfully secured the rest of Venezuelan northern coast, allowing an even tighter ring around Caracas, made worse by the naval blockade of the city. Finally, Caracas fell, American forces advanced towards Rio Orinoco and General Garcia Alvarez shot himself. The "Grenadine Republic" ceased to exist soon after, and only scattered resistance in the countryside remains.
(-Grenadine Rebels as an independent nation, -3 American divisions, -1 American Chaqueto Marron division, -2 American irregular divisions)
The Portuguese onslaught against la Plata continued after a Platine attempt to regain the initiative in an attack towards Rio de la Plata ended in encirclement and disaster at Las Varillas. Despite the growing guerrila resistance (+5 Platine irregular divisions), the Portuguese have captured southern Chile, Viedma and the surrounding territory; they have also besieged a sizeable Platine force at Cordoba. And yet, the Platines clearly still have some fight left in them...
(-6 Platine divisions, -2 Platine irregular divisions)
Continued mis-rule of the unpopular and weak King Badi IV - with some prodding from some foreign powers - has resulted in the erosion of Sennarese power in the border territories. Finally, in the north several local commanders begun refusing to obey orders altogether, along with their soldiers (-5 divisions), becoming free warlords. When Badi IV had tried to deal with the warlords, he found out that he couldn't rely on the rest of his army neither, nor on the nobility as he only barely survived the blades of some conspirators. Though with the remaining loyal forces, Badi managed to arrest and execute his enemies, things were clearly dire, especially as the Christian tribes in the south rose up and requested Abyssinian protection (+2 Abyssinian irregular divisions). Said protection was granted in force - vast Abyssinian armies, spearheaded by the Imperial Guards of Shiba, crossed the border at several points, routed the crumbling Sennarese forces put against them, and once more captured Wad Madani and Ar Rank. They also seized some Nilotic countryside (not yet reaching the city of Sennar, though) and parts of the Sahel. Though Badi has succesfully reinforced his grasp on the remaining territories and rallied the remnants of the army, the only real hope Sennar still has lies in Ankara.
(-9 Sennarese divisions, -2 Abyssinian division, -1 Abyssinian irregular division)
The Japanese once more invaded China, this time going for the less developed, sparsely-populated, undergarrisoned northern lands - to wit, Manchuria. The Chinese were prepared for many things, but not for the Japanese attacking in those barren and fairly useless lands, and so, having captured beachheads north and south of the Ussuri region, the Japanese, despite logistical problems and attrition, attained an element of surprise that allowed them to take Mukden virtually on the march. Things were rather harder at Anshan and at Qinhuangdao, but the Chinese resistance there was overcome as well. In the north, despite the resistance of the local population (+5 Qing irregular divisions), the Japanese had also secured several local towns, and finally converged at Qinhuangdao, helping the Japanese forces already there drive off a Chinese counter-attack. Meanwhile, the Japanese allies, specifically the French, acted as well - they broke with a great fleet into the Bo Hai, despite many casualties suffered to the new Chinese coastal batteries in Shandong and Liaodong, and then near Tianjin itself. Nonetheless, the French army carried there was also quite sizeable, and with sheer numbers (and firepower) the French secured the city, if at a large price. Having learned of the Japanese presence in Qinghuandao, which was just to the north-east of Beijing, a pretty obvious plan was worked out, and despite heavy Chinese resistance and the levying of enthusiastic local militias (+5 irregular divisions), the Forbidden City itself fell, for the first time in the history of the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Qianlong himself seems has perished in the fighting (not leaving the capital in its hour of peril, as befits an Emperor), though the decentralization reforms have proved quite handy as the country, for now, shows no signs of falling apart (which is not to say that its having things easy (-1 Qing Civilian Leadership, Confidence)). Remnants of the court and the Imperial Family (though some of its members have died or were captured as well) have fled for the city of Jinan, where they came under the protection of Chinese troops. Meanwhile, as Beijing was captured, much of the treasury fell to the French and was partitioned between them themselves and the people of the city (1 Qing Economy to France).
(-15 French Foreign Legions, -8 French Squadrons, -6 Qing divisions, -11 Qing irregular divisions, -6 Qing Ma Bing divisions, -6 Japanese divisions, -3 Japanese Ikkitousennonimusha divisions)
Unaware of the tragic happenings in the north, the Chinese went on with their devious plans for revanche in Indo-China. First, they forced out the undersupplied, outnumbered Mughals out of western Burma without much of a fight, and proceeded to strike into French territory through formerly-Mughal one, outflanking the French. Meanwhile the Burmese rebel movement continued to founder, and the Ava Cluster was quickly relieved. The Chinese then attacked the French positions both from the west and the north, and, despite heavy casualties, forced the French to fall back further and further, until all they had left in Burma was Pegu, Rangoon and Karen (though where they did hold out, they held quite well). Meanwhile, with almost unfathomable speed, the Qing have evidently constructed a brand new flotilla, and, using the French fleet's strange absence, landed troops behind the enemy lines, in Siam, more specifically in Tavoy. And from there, they struck out for Bangkok, and defeated the meager French garrison. Having persuaded the King of Siam to turn on his French puppetmasters, the Chinese were able to put much of the colony aflame (+5 Qing irregular divisions). In Vietnam, however, the French proved much harder to dislodge. Even as a popular leader by the name of Minh Duong Duc started a Vietnamese guerrila war in the jungles, the French, having deployed many troops there, managed to limit the rebels to the jungles, neutralizing them due to their fear of confronting large forces. A Chinese offensive faced immense logistical problems, suffering many casualties both to the French firepower and the various diseases in the jungles. Their efforts to cross the Mekong succeeded, but that hasn't visibly helped them at all; meanwhile, in Laos, they gained ground but not as much as they had hoped for.
(-4 French divisions, -6 French Foreign Legions, -9 Qing divisions, -14 Qing irregular divisions)
Somehow, the Chinese managed to sneak a few ships - masked as trade vessels - into Tokyo harbour, blowing them up there. It isn't at all clear what was the purpose of it, or of the attempted ignition of the city, as Tokyo wasn't very important a city, how ever large, and the sabotage of its harbour didn't cause much damage to the Japanese economy; whereas the Japanese people generally were even further embittered by this, many young Tokyans and other Japanese volunteering to join the army due to this and the usual Tokugawa propaganda (+5 divisions).
(-2 Chinese squadrons)
The Portuguese fortress of Kota a Famosa at Melaka, captured by the Lima Sekawan in the beginning of their rebellion, continues to impede its creators in their endeavour to restore order in the Malay lands. Despite the siege and the bombardments, and the diseases that begin to grind away at the garrison and the population, Dato' Maharajalela continued and still continues to inspire the defenders to resist the Portuguese. Yet though his charisma and leadership skills are enormous, but as the situation keeps detiriorating they will soon be simply not enough against the Portuguese war machine. In the countryside, said war machine has overran the north-west, ruthelessly eliminating all resistance there at the price of many casualties to both disease and guerrilas; after that, several forts were constructed to defend the primary Portuguese lines. In the end, the Malay rebels seem doomed, but, much like the Platines, seem strangely ignorant of that fact.
(-2 Malay divisions, -9 Malay irregular divisions, -4 Portuguese divisions)
Random Events:
The Danish parliamentarism is in its Golden Age (+1 Confidence).
The Venezuelans, inspired by General Fernando Rodrigo Garcia de Alvarez y Arroyo's letters being spread all over the Hemisphere, rally for the Grenadine cause (+5 divisions).
Although he fails to save the Krakow Union, Friedrich von Dunkelheit's success in attaining much more bearable terms and starting a recovery process in the new east German state wins him much repute (+1 Confidence).
As the Abyssinian struggle with Islam is renewed, the poor gladly join the crusading army (+5 divisions).
Jose Felipe Vega - de facto and now de jure ruler of unoccupied de la Plata - incites a spirit of Platine national resistance to the Portuguese (+1 Culture).
Despite, or maybe even because of the "Marmara Crisis", the Turkish people rally around Suleiman III (+1 Confidence).
The succesful - and surprisingly easy - war with the Krakowians greatly boosts the Byzantine basilissa's prestige (+1 Confidence).
Julien-Francois I becomes more popular than any other French king since Henri IV the Great, having attained great victories and at the same time reformed and strenghthened France at home and abroad by peaceful means as welll (+1 Confidence).
The Articles of Union are published in Acapulco, consolidating the EUA (+1 Civilian Leadership).
Bad weather damages the Danish infrastructure (-1 Infrastructure).
Popular Yugoslavic separatist movements immediately arise in the new Byzantine territories (-1 Culture).
The French military leaders, satisfied with their victories, become ever less open to innovative ideas as opposed to the present doctrines (-1 Military Leadership).
Desertion is rampant in the Swedish army (-5 divisions). Living standards also decline (-1 Living Standards).
The economic decline caused by the need to maintain a huge army also damages the social conditions back in Russia itself (-1 Living Standards).
Spotlight:
Peace in Europe.
"Historic times are such times during which everything happens simply way too fast for anyone to keep up, thus demanding much more examination than otherwise at and after their end."
- Dietrich d'Vesal, Franco-German historian and writer, "Life and Times of Basilissa Irene II". Year 1827.
On February 14th 1748, in the Polish town of Tarem - where the Tsar's Stavka, and the Tsar himself, had moved back in 1746 to supervise the war effort - the peace treaty was signed between the Krakow Union and the Union of Russia-Lithuania-Romania. The Byzantine Empire, the Kigndom of Denmark-Norway and the Swedish Republic soon recognized it as well. This treaty, somewhat anticlimatically after the Dunkelheitian Restoration, has confirmed the Russian and Allied victory in the Balkan (or Krakow, as it was known in its later stages) War. Sweden was given back the city of Danzig; the Russians annexed Poland and the eastern half of Hungary, including the city of Pest but not Buda; the Byzantines took over the territories of the former Bulgaria and Serbia, more-or-less, annexing a part of Illyria as well. The remnants of the Krakow Union turned into the Republic of Greater Germany, with the capital in, strangely enough, Berlin, and with Friedrich von Dunkelheit still in power.
On the next day, as if to signal the beginning of a new and wonderful era, eight men were hanged by the French in Frankfurt am Main. They were the key leaders of the Augsburger resistance that were arrested in the German territory by the new Sicherheit Ministry. Though the resistance movement lingered on, it was crippled, and the Constitution of the Rhine went into effect, creating a Confederation of the Rhine in the lands of the former Kingdom of Brunswick and League of Augsburg; France itself annexed only a tiny slice of North Sea coast, though the Confederation itself, while internally autonomous, was still very much subservient to France. Not all the people in the annexed territories liked it, but it was a peace.
Yes, trully, it was a peace. A fragile and in many cases unsatisfactory peace, but peace nonetheless. It meant that for the first time since 1741, when the Janissaries mutinied against the Ottoman Empire, all of Europe was at peace, and there were no wars or open rebellions whatsoever - for now, anyway. And as the tensions between France and Russia receded with the emergence of a powerful buffer state between them... maybe this peace could even be kept for the next few years.
Not that it is likely, if one looks more carefully. From the start there were obvious flaws in the peace. The new Greater German Republic, for instance, was much less an united state than the Krakow Union, as its three key components - Brandenburg, Bohemia and Austria - all had well-developed regional identities, and were quite equal to each other in pure strenght. Both Bohemia and Austria felt insulted by the placement of the capital in the faraway "barbaric" Berlin. Furthermore, the GGR in its present borders is not very tenable and, unless it wants to remain a chronically unstable buffer state, it will need to expand either back east, either, as the French pamphleteers have been warning for some time now, to the west (which indeed seems implied by their nation name)... Also, the Swedes and, to a much lesser extent, the Byzantines were not fully satisfied with the extent of their gains, the former wanting all of Pommerania and the latter reluctant to let go of Illyria, as reluctant, in fact, as to ransack the city of Split before leaving. And though the 1747 crisis of Ottoman volunteers trying attack Constantinople seems to have been resolved, there still is some bitter feeling between both sides, from now and from before.
In the meantime, the French system also was somewhat disturbed. In England, the Commonwealthist movement, though somewhat on the decline as the government still is supported by the various English nationalists, has gained support in the ranks of the latter for one point of their program - the break with France. The same has been proposed in Euskardi. To the south from there, Spain semi-violated the Treaty of Paris, as the Cortes persuaded Arturo Pelaya to be crowned as king - in a parliamentary monarchy, ofcourse. As Spanish nationalism seems to be on the rise now, both in Spain and in the French Principality of Aragon and Catalonia, it seems that France isn't really done with the Pyrenean Menace yet. Similarily, in Milan and Genoa Italian nationalists are increasingly supportive of joining the Holy League. In France itself more than in any other countries, the "communitilists" - rather similar to the Danish socialists - have been gaining support and their ideas - credit, as the social tensions of the modern industrial society slowly but surely begin the road towards intensification and perhaps even violent culmination, though for now the prospect seems unlikely.
Finally, both at home and abroad (like, say, in Copenhagen), the delegations of both of Europe's remaining great powers continued acting with alarming hostility, and both Russian and French (the latter at the forward bases that could only be of major use in the event of a war with Russia) fleets have been drilling and preparing for the other side's attacks for years now...
NPC Diplo:
*secret*
From: Chilean Rebels
To: EUA
Lets just get on with it and annex Chile into the EUA. We may need some military assistance though... against the Portuguese, ofcourse.
*secret*
OOC:
The Farrow, give a name for your king please. Rather hard without one..
MjM, are you still playing the Incans?
Did change my mind after all, sort of, though there is a summary on the first page unless I forget to put it there.
Btw, if I hadn't mentioned some large, easily-noticeable events in any updates, then chances are they didn't happen at all unless I specifically said otherwise, or unless, ofcourse, I forgot. Because there seem to be some problems, and some nation leaders seem to have a slightly failing grasp of reality.
Also, if you intend to join - or already joined - this NES... please, try to read the rules. I didn't post them just to show them off once more, I also posted them to take up space... and out of hope that someone will read them, too. I am quite serious, btw, many of you don't seem to have read them carefully enough...
Furthermore, I am considering a revision of the rules, as to make the amount of eco. points it takes to grow army training and military leadership depend on the amount of troops/ships.
Non-Military Events:
As per the Acapulco Articles, a.k.a. the Articles of Union, the EUA is decentralized even further (-1 Centralization, +1 Confidence).
The plebiscite in Ecuador supported the region's annexation into the EUA as opposed to the Incan Empire, whereas the plebiscite in Chile has an inconclusive result due to: a) the lack of an independence option, which by then was the most popular and b) the Portuguese war effort against the la Plata (see military events).
With the temporary recession of Franco-Russian tensions, both sides begin to feel the financial and the morale prices of maintaining such large militaries (-1 Economy, Confidence both). As does the Byzantine Empire (same for it).
Europe settles down after the War of Spanish Dissolution, the Krakow War and countless earlier and/or smaller conflicts.
(see spotlight)
(+1 French Culture, -1 German Confidence, Culture, +1 Russian Confidence, -1 Swedish Confidence, -Split economic center, +1 Spanish, Papal Culture)
The Danish-Norwegian Fatherland Party wins yet another re-election. Notably, the Norwegian separatists, the "socialists" and the conservatives all rose in influence somehow along with the FP, while the royalists and the People's Party declined. To be entirely honest, none but the Danes cared much about this. Much more interesting was the Copenhagen World Fair, clearly inspired by the Universal Exposition, but it, compared to the Exposition, went by rather boringly, apart from the facts of American attendance and recognition and the Chinese part of the fair where, firstly, anti-Japanese propaganda was incessantly spewed out causing many a scandal, and, secondly, ancient Chinese technologic achievements were showed off, quite inspiringly for many European scientists and Orientalists alike. Anyway, things were mostly peaceful (+1 Danish, German, Abyssinian, Mughal Education).
The dramatic growth of education in Germany, combined with the defeat in the Krakow War and the movement of the capital to the unpopular Berlin, causes a rise of dissent under "communitalist" (see above, see spotlight) lines and of local nationalism (-1 Confidence, Culture). The Sicherheit Ministry, however, cracks down succesfully on the revolutionary movements...
Large-scale investments and years of patient development allowed the rise of a new great industrial center at Veliky Novgorod and of trade - in Odessa (+Novgorod, Odessa economic centers).
A great triumph was scored by the French science, as the Canal de L'Egyptien is finished (+Suez economic center, +1 Confidence).
The European education program begins to bear fruit for Abyssinia (+1 Education). So do the missionary efforts in the south, as Catholicism spreads and several local tribes agree to pledge loyalty to the Negus Negusti, even providing some troops (+1 irregular division).
After the Restoration of the West, the Mughals, quite unexpectedly, introduce a series of decentralizing reforms in their north-west, though at the same time they were used to consolidate their power through the semi-autonomous local rulers (-1 Centralization, +1 Culture).
A patriotic wave - encouraged by the Qing - overtakes China Proper (+1 Culture). Also, Shanghai is mostly restored as a great economic center (+Shanghai economic center), though the other centers "neutralized" by the Japanese, being much more specialized on oversea trade, remained quite useless.
Japanese-held Taipei emerges as a trade center in the wake of the crippling of Chinese commerce (+Taipei economic center).
Military Events:
Small patrols, merchants and officials that for whatever reason chose to travel through the inland central parts of the French North American colonies came under sporadic, enigmatic attacks that have been attributed by some to the Amerinds, and by some - to the local anti-government forces. Further investigation is needed, though this is yet to become anything more than a nuisance, and a rather smallish one at that.
Despite Garcia Alvarez' desperate attempts to rally his troops and raise an "armada popular" out of the non-Amerinds in Venezuela (+5 irregular divisions), the Grenadine rebels were quite doomed. The American forces besieging Caracas beat back a few poorly-organized Grenadine attacks and secured more of the countryside around the city, while despite the "armada popular"'s guerrila efforts the American armies in Colombia sucesfully secured the rest of Venezuelan northern coast, allowing an even tighter ring around Caracas, made worse by the naval blockade of the city. Finally, Caracas fell, American forces advanced towards Rio Orinoco and General Garcia Alvarez shot himself. The "Grenadine Republic" ceased to exist soon after, and only scattered resistance in the countryside remains.
(-Grenadine Rebels as an independent nation, -3 American divisions, -1 American Chaqueto Marron division, -2 American irregular divisions)
The Portuguese onslaught against la Plata continued after a Platine attempt to regain the initiative in an attack towards Rio de la Plata ended in encirclement and disaster at Las Varillas. Despite the growing guerrila resistance (+5 Platine irregular divisions), the Portuguese have captured southern Chile, Viedma and the surrounding territory; they have also besieged a sizeable Platine force at Cordoba. And yet, the Platines clearly still have some fight left in them...
(-6 Platine divisions, -2 Platine irregular divisions)
Continued mis-rule of the unpopular and weak King Badi IV - with some prodding from some foreign powers - has resulted in the erosion of Sennarese power in the border territories. Finally, in the north several local commanders begun refusing to obey orders altogether, along with their soldiers (-5 divisions), becoming free warlords. When Badi IV had tried to deal with the warlords, he found out that he couldn't rely on the rest of his army neither, nor on the nobility as he only barely survived the blades of some conspirators. Though with the remaining loyal forces, Badi managed to arrest and execute his enemies, things were clearly dire, especially as the Christian tribes in the south rose up and requested Abyssinian protection (+2 Abyssinian irregular divisions). Said protection was granted in force - vast Abyssinian armies, spearheaded by the Imperial Guards of Shiba, crossed the border at several points, routed the crumbling Sennarese forces put against them, and once more captured Wad Madani and Ar Rank. They also seized some Nilotic countryside (not yet reaching the city of Sennar, though) and parts of the Sahel. Though Badi has succesfully reinforced his grasp on the remaining territories and rallied the remnants of the army, the only real hope Sennar still has lies in Ankara.
(-9 Sennarese divisions, -2 Abyssinian division, -1 Abyssinian irregular division)
The Japanese once more invaded China, this time going for the less developed, sparsely-populated, undergarrisoned northern lands - to wit, Manchuria. The Chinese were prepared for many things, but not for the Japanese attacking in those barren and fairly useless lands, and so, having captured beachheads north and south of the Ussuri region, the Japanese, despite logistical problems and attrition, attained an element of surprise that allowed them to take Mukden virtually on the march. Things were rather harder at Anshan and at Qinhuangdao, but the Chinese resistance there was overcome as well. In the north, despite the resistance of the local population (+5 Qing irregular divisions), the Japanese had also secured several local towns, and finally converged at Qinhuangdao, helping the Japanese forces already there drive off a Chinese counter-attack. Meanwhile, the Japanese allies, specifically the French, acted as well - they broke with a great fleet into the Bo Hai, despite many casualties suffered to the new Chinese coastal batteries in Shandong and Liaodong, and then near Tianjin itself. Nonetheless, the French army carried there was also quite sizeable, and with sheer numbers (and firepower) the French secured the city, if at a large price. Having learned of the Japanese presence in Qinghuandao, which was just to the north-east of Beijing, a pretty obvious plan was worked out, and despite heavy Chinese resistance and the levying of enthusiastic local militias (+5 irregular divisions), the Forbidden City itself fell, for the first time in the history of the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Qianlong himself seems has perished in the fighting (not leaving the capital in its hour of peril, as befits an Emperor), though the decentralization reforms have proved quite handy as the country, for now, shows no signs of falling apart (which is not to say that its having things easy (-1 Qing Civilian Leadership, Confidence)). Remnants of the court and the Imperial Family (though some of its members have died or were captured as well) have fled for the city of Jinan, where they came under the protection of Chinese troops. Meanwhile, as Beijing was captured, much of the treasury fell to the French and was partitioned between them themselves and the people of the city (1 Qing Economy to France).
(-15 French Foreign Legions, -8 French Squadrons, -6 Qing divisions, -11 Qing irregular divisions, -6 Qing Ma Bing divisions, -6 Japanese divisions, -3 Japanese Ikkitousennonimusha divisions)
Unaware of the tragic happenings in the north, the Chinese went on with their devious plans for revanche in Indo-China. First, they forced out the undersupplied, outnumbered Mughals out of western Burma without much of a fight, and proceeded to strike into French territory through formerly-Mughal one, outflanking the French. Meanwhile the Burmese rebel movement continued to founder, and the Ava Cluster was quickly relieved. The Chinese then attacked the French positions both from the west and the north, and, despite heavy casualties, forced the French to fall back further and further, until all they had left in Burma was Pegu, Rangoon and Karen (though where they did hold out, they held quite well). Meanwhile, with almost unfathomable speed, the Qing have evidently constructed a brand new flotilla, and, using the French fleet's strange absence, landed troops behind the enemy lines, in Siam, more specifically in Tavoy. And from there, they struck out for Bangkok, and defeated the meager French garrison. Having persuaded the King of Siam to turn on his French puppetmasters, the Chinese were able to put much of the colony aflame (+5 Qing irregular divisions). In Vietnam, however, the French proved much harder to dislodge. Even as a popular leader by the name of Minh Duong Duc started a Vietnamese guerrila war in the jungles, the French, having deployed many troops there, managed to limit the rebels to the jungles, neutralizing them due to their fear of confronting large forces. A Chinese offensive faced immense logistical problems, suffering many casualties both to the French firepower and the various diseases in the jungles. Their efforts to cross the Mekong succeeded, but that hasn't visibly helped them at all; meanwhile, in Laos, they gained ground but not as much as they had hoped for.
(-4 French divisions, -6 French Foreign Legions, -9 Qing divisions, -14 Qing irregular divisions)
Somehow, the Chinese managed to sneak a few ships - masked as trade vessels - into Tokyo harbour, blowing them up there. It isn't at all clear what was the purpose of it, or of the attempted ignition of the city, as Tokyo wasn't very important a city, how ever large, and the sabotage of its harbour didn't cause much damage to the Japanese economy; whereas the Japanese people generally were even further embittered by this, many young Tokyans and other Japanese volunteering to join the army due to this and the usual Tokugawa propaganda (+5 divisions).
(-2 Chinese squadrons)
The Portuguese fortress of Kota a Famosa at Melaka, captured by the Lima Sekawan in the beginning of their rebellion, continues to impede its creators in their endeavour to restore order in the Malay lands. Despite the siege and the bombardments, and the diseases that begin to grind away at the garrison and the population, Dato' Maharajalela continued and still continues to inspire the defenders to resist the Portuguese. Yet though his charisma and leadership skills are enormous, but as the situation keeps detiriorating they will soon be simply not enough against the Portuguese war machine. In the countryside, said war machine has overran the north-west, ruthelessly eliminating all resistance there at the price of many casualties to both disease and guerrilas; after that, several forts were constructed to defend the primary Portuguese lines. In the end, the Malay rebels seem doomed, but, much like the Platines, seem strangely ignorant of that fact.
(-2 Malay divisions, -9 Malay irregular divisions, -4 Portuguese divisions)
Random Events:
The Danish parliamentarism is in its Golden Age (+1 Confidence).
The Venezuelans, inspired by General Fernando Rodrigo Garcia de Alvarez y Arroyo's letters being spread all over the Hemisphere, rally for the Grenadine cause (+5 divisions).
Although he fails to save the Krakow Union, Friedrich von Dunkelheit's success in attaining much more bearable terms and starting a recovery process in the new east German state wins him much repute (+1 Confidence).
As the Abyssinian struggle with Islam is renewed, the poor gladly join the crusading army (+5 divisions).
Jose Felipe Vega - de facto and now de jure ruler of unoccupied de la Plata - incites a spirit of Platine national resistance to the Portuguese (+1 Culture).
Despite, or maybe even because of the "Marmara Crisis", the Turkish people rally around Suleiman III (+1 Confidence).
The succesful - and surprisingly easy - war with the Krakowians greatly boosts the Byzantine basilissa's prestige (+1 Confidence).
Julien-Francois I becomes more popular than any other French king since Henri IV the Great, having attained great victories and at the same time reformed and strenghthened France at home and abroad by peaceful means as welll (+1 Confidence).
The Articles of Union are published in Acapulco, consolidating the EUA (+1 Civilian Leadership).
Bad weather damages the Danish infrastructure (-1 Infrastructure).
Popular Yugoslavic separatist movements immediately arise in the new Byzantine territories (-1 Culture).
The French military leaders, satisfied with their victories, become ever less open to innovative ideas as opposed to the present doctrines (-1 Military Leadership).
Desertion is rampant in the Swedish army (-5 divisions). Living standards also decline (-1 Living Standards).
The economic decline caused by the need to maintain a huge army also damages the social conditions back in Russia itself (-1 Living Standards).
Spotlight:
Peace in Europe.
"Historic times are such times during which everything happens simply way too fast for anyone to keep up, thus demanding much more examination than otherwise at and after their end."
- Dietrich d'Vesal, Franco-German historian and writer, "Life and Times of Basilissa Irene II". Year 1827.
On February 14th 1748, in the Polish town of Tarem - where the Tsar's Stavka, and the Tsar himself, had moved back in 1746 to supervise the war effort - the peace treaty was signed between the Krakow Union and the Union of Russia-Lithuania-Romania. The Byzantine Empire, the Kigndom of Denmark-Norway and the Swedish Republic soon recognized it as well. This treaty, somewhat anticlimatically after the Dunkelheitian Restoration, has confirmed the Russian and Allied victory in the Balkan (or Krakow, as it was known in its later stages) War. Sweden was given back the city of Danzig; the Russians annexed Poland and the eastern half of Hungary, including the city of Pest but not Buda; the Byzantines took over the territories of the former Bulgaria and Serbia, more-or-less, annexing a part of Illyria as well. The remnants of the Krakow Union turned into the Republic of Greater Germany, with the capital in, strangely enough, Berlin, and with Friedrich von Dunkelheit still in power.
On the next day, as if to signal the beginning of a new and wonderful era, eight men were hanged by the French in Frankfurt am Main. They were the key leaders of the Augsburger resistance that were arrested in the German territory by the new Sicherheit Ministry. Though the resistance movement lingered on, it was crippled, and the Constitution of the Rhine went into effect, creating a Confederation of the Rhine in the lands of the former Kingdom of Brunswick and League of Augsburg; France itself annexed only a tiny slice of North Sea coast, though the Confederation itself, while internally autonomous, was still very much subservient to France. Not all the people in the annexed territories liked it, but it was a peace.
Yes, trully, it was a peace. A fragile and in many cases unsatisfactory peace, but peace nonetheless. It meant that for the first time since 1741, when the Janissaries mutinied against the Ottoman Empire, all of Europe was at peace, and there were no wars or open rebellions whatsoever - for now, anyway. And as the tensions between France and Russia receded with the emergence of a powerful buffer state between them... maybe this peace could even be kept for the next few years.
Not that it is likely, if one looks more carefully. From the start there were obvious flaws in the peace. The new Greater German Republic, for instance, was much less an united state than the Krakow Union, as its three key components - Brandenburg, Bohemia and Austria - all had well-developed regional identities, and were quite equal to each other in pure strenght. Both Bohemia and Austria felt insulted by the placement of the capital in the faraway "barbaric" Berlin. Furthermore, the GGR in its present borders is not very tenable and, unless it wants to remain a chronically unstable buffer state, it will need to expand either back east, either, as the French pamphleteers have been warning for some time now, to the west (which indeed seems implied by their nation name)... Also, the Swedes and, to a much lesser extent, the Byzantines were not fully satisfied with the extent of their gains, the former wanting all of Pommerania and the latter reluctant to let go of Illyria, as reluctant, in fact, as to ransack the city of Split before leaving. And though the 1747 crisis of Ottoman volunteers trying attack Constantinople seems to have been resolved, there still is some bitter feeling between both sides, from now and from before.
In the meantime, the French system also was somewhat disturbed. In England, the Commonwealthist movement, though somewhat on the decline as the government still is supported by the various English nationalists, has gained support in the ranks of the latter for one point of their program - the break with France. The same has been proposed in Euskardi. To the south from there, Spain semi-violated the Treaty of Paris, as the Cortes persuaded Arturo Pelaya to be crowned as king - in a parliamentary monarchy, ofcourse. As Spanish nationalism seems to be on the rise now, both in Spain and in the French Principality of Aragon and Catalonia, it seems that France isn't really done with the Pyrenean Menace yet. Similarily, in Milan and Genoa Italian nationalists are increasingly supportive of joining the Holy League. In France itself more than in any other countries, the "communitilists" - rather similar to the Danish socialists - have been gaining support and their ideas - credit, as the social tensions of the modern industrial society slowly but surely begin the road towards intensification and perhaps even violent culmination, though for now the prospect seems unlikely.
Finally, both at home and abroad (like, say, in Copenhagen), the delegations of both of Europe's remaining great powers continued acting with alarming hostility, and both Russian and French (the latter at the forward bases that could only be of major use in the event of a war with Russia) fleets have been drilling and preparing for the other side's attacks for years now...
NPC Diplo:
*secret*
From: Chilean Rebels
To: EUA
Lets just get on with it and annex Chile into the EUA. We may need some military assistance though... against the Portuguese, ofcourse.
*secret*
OOC:
The Farrow, give a name for your king please. Rather hard without one..
MjM, are you still playing the Incans?
Did change my mind after all, sort of, though there is a summary on the first page unless I forget to put it there.
Btw, if I hadn't mentioned some large, easily-noticeable events in any updates, then chances are they didn't happen at all unless I specifically said otherwise, or unless, ofcourse, I forgot. Because there seem to be some problems, and some nation leaders seem to have a slightly failing grasp of reality.
Also, if you intend to join - or already joined - this NES... please, try to read the rules. I didn't post them just to show them off once more, I also posted them to take up space... and out of hope that someone will read them, too. I am quite serious, btw, many of you don't seem to have read them carefully enough...
Furthermore, I am considering a revision of the rules, as to make the amount of eco. points it takes to grow army training and military leadership depend on the amount of troops/ships.
das
Regeneration In Process
Symphony D.
Deity
OOC: Wow, it... worked. Aside from going back and securing everything behind the main avenues of advance, anyway...
Oh well. Main objectives secured. We've also got additions to our nation descriptions!
Oh well. Main objectives secured. We've also got additions to our nation descriptions!
Icmancin
WSNR Pte
Nice update. A Vietnam war? Who would've ever guessed.
Icmancin
WSNR Pte
I mean with Vietnamese irregulars and a leader.
Symphony D.
Deity
Propaganda Pamphlet in Circulation said:
OOC: Time to start up the story-mill again...
Thlayli
Le Pétit Prince
Kind of like the devil telling the Chinese that God has lost the Mandate of Heaven, but...oh well.
Alex, I need to ask you about the succession of the empire.
Alex, I need to ask you about the succession of the empire.
