The Century of Peace
The Forgotten War
Note: The construction "Century of Peace" refers to the period with no wars between European Powers. The Colonial Wars are not taken into consideration.
Anti-Islamism in Europe (excerpts)
Paul Dragu, Constantinople, Romania, 1954
In its seemingly neverending conflict with Islam, the fortunes of the Christendom varied in direct relation to the degree of unity and cohesion in the two warring camps.
During the early Caliphates, the fractured Christendom did not stand a chance against the Islamic onslaught. Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Northern Africa and Hispania were lost in a historical blink of an eye.
When the Western Christendom rised to the call of the Pope, the resulting selfless Christian solidarity lead to the superb phenomenon of the first Crusades and the temporary liberation of the Holy Land from the accursed Mahommedan yoke.
Later, the asinine infighting between our sisterly Churches led to the disastrous fourth Crusade which dealt a mortal blow to the Eastern Roman Empire from which it never fully recovered. The lack of a strong bastion of Christianity in the Orient allowed the catastrophic rise of the Ottoman Empire, the greatest scourge that had ever befallen this part of the Christendom.
The small countries of the Balkans, frequently quarelling with one another, were rapidly overrun by the mighty Turks united under the Ottoman banner. With the Ottomans on the Danube and deep inside the former Hungarian Kingdom, the disunited Romanians and Germans would have certainly shared the gruesome fate of their neighbours if not for the Providential Coming of Saint Emperor Mihai I the Brave.
We should never underestimate the impact our beloved Saint Emperor had upon the beleaguered Christendom. Almost singlehandedly, he united all Romanians in a single powerful Empire, was the catalist of Sarmatian and German Unity and engineered the 1622 Anti-Ottoman Crusade which forever curbed the Ottoman menace. [...]
The founding of the Great Power Council, this wonderful institution which allowed the European Powers to act together against their common enemies, heralded the unprecedented era of Christian domination in which we are living today. [...]
To be completely honest, the spectacular 17th century Christian victories against the Islam were greatly aided by the disunity of the Mahommedans and especially by the repeated treasonous Persian stabs in the back against the crumbling Ottoman power.
In the First Romanian-Ottoman War, the Persian entry into the war hastened the Ottoman capitulation and saved many Christian lives.
In the Second Romanian-Ottoman War, the destruction of the Ottoman Empire was aided by internal rebellions and defections in Egypt and Arabia.
In the Third Romanian-Ottoman War, the internal disunity of the weak Ottoman State, the neutrality of Egypt and cobelliberancy of Persia helped Romania strike a mortal blow to the Ottomans and include most of it into the newly formed Christian Empire of the Orient.
Conversely, when Romania was deserted by its erstwhile allies in the wastelands of Arabia, Empress Iulia the Warrior was killed, the campaign was hastily brought to a premature end and the conquest of Mecca had to be postponed indefinitely.
[...]
Unfortunately, the era of Islamic disunity was brought to an end by increasingly bold Romanian actions in the Orient. The total destruction of the Ottoman State, the ultimately aborted thrust towards Mecca, the continuous encroachments upon the sovereignty of the Turkish and Levantine Protectorates and the horrific abuses perpetrated against the helpless Mahommedan population by the irregural militias and Romanian Colonial Authorities made the remaining Islamic countries wary and resulted in increased political, economic and military cooperation between them.
The 1670 annexation of Turkey was only the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. [...]
The Islamic Alliance
21 April 1671 AD (12 Dhu'l-Hijjah 1081 AH), Mecca, Arabia
In the last day of the Hajj, the leaders of the remaining Muslim States of the Middle East pledged to maintain peace among themselves and to fully support each other in case of war with a Christian State (which was understood to be Romania).
The founding document of the
Islamic Alliance (التحالف الإسلامي /
Altahaluf Al'iislamiu) included the following points (abridged):
1. The faithful peoples from the countries of the
Dar al-Islam (Islamic countries) shall refrain from waging war among themselves and live in peace with one another just as Allah intended.
2. In the case one of the signatory countries wants to wage war against a country from the
Dar al-Harb (non-Islamic countries), it shall first inform the other signatories and discuss the opportunity of said war. If a consensus is not reached about the opportunity of the war against the
kafirs (infidels), the other signatories are not mandated to provide military help but should, in any case, provide moral support to the warring country while maintaining their neutrality.
3. In the case one of the signatory countries is attacked by an infidel country, the other signatories must immediately provide full military support to the attacked country until the successful conclusion of the war and the expulsion of the infidels from the
Dar al-Islam.
Signed today, 12 Dhu'l-Hijjah 1081, in the Holy City of Mecca, by:
- the Shahanshah of the Persian Empire,
- the Sultan of Egypt,
- the Caliph of Arabia and
- the Emir of the Levant. [1]
[1] The Levant was not an Independent country but a de jure Romanian Protectorate within the Empire of the Orient. It was, nonetheless allowed to join the Islamic Alliance as a full Independent State by the other Muslim States.
1671 - 1681
The signing of Islamic Alliance had an immediate effect both in the Islamic countries and in Christian Europe, especially in the Empire of the Orient (as Romania, Greece, Armenia and Georgia used to be under Muslim domination for centuries).
Persia, Egypt, Arabia and the Levant began to prepare for what they saw as an inevitable war with Romania. All countries improved and expanded their armed forces while Persia helped the weaker members of the alliance with weapons and military instructors.
Romania protested the increase in the size of the Levantine Army, citing the 1649 Peace of Damascus and accusing the Levant of breaking its provisions. Enboldened by the support of its stronger neighbours, the Levantines disregarded the Romanian protests and continued to expand and modernize their army.
With a future conflict more or less certain, Romania and the other members of the Empire of the Orient began to prepare for war themselves. Armenia and Georgia were by far the most concerned because they were small countries which shared a border with the more powerful and suddenly hostile Persian Empire.
Italy was also concerned due to the presence of a difficult to defend Saharan border between Italian Africa and Egyptian Cyrenaica. Anticipating possible trouble, the Italians increased the number and quality of their colonial troops dislocated in Tripolitania.
German concerns were limited to a possible closure of the Sinai Canal which was already vital, providing them with a fast and secure connection between the Metropole and the Südreich.
Anticipating a revolt of the large Muslim population from Asia Minor (annexed Turkey) in the likely case of a war with the neighbouring Muslim States, the Romanian Colonial Authorities increased the pace of the colonization of Asia Minor with Romanians, Cossacks, Greeks and other Christians.
At the same time, the Romanian Army, as well as the armies of the lesser members of the Empire of the Orient, prepared for war with frequent military exercises, better conscription, partial mobilizations and various upgrades in military equipment and strategy.
The frequent clashes between the Levantines and the Jewish militias from the Holy Land encroaching upon adjacent Levantine territory were increasingly uneven in favour of the significantly modernized Levantine Army.
The Levant was always protesting the Jewish actions to the Romanian Authorities without receiving any answers. Romania, the nominally Protecting Power of the Levant, was not only not doing anything to curb the power of the Jewish militias operating from the safety of the Romanian-held Holy Land, but was actually encouraging the large number of Jewish settlers in their attempts to appropriate parcels of land from the Levantine side of the border.
The explosive situation had its roots in the Romanian decision to colonize the Holy Land, initially with thousands of Jews evicted from Romania Proper and then with an increasingly larger number of Jews expelled by the other Christian Powers. By the start of the war, the only Christian countries with extant Jewish minorities were Russia (~600,000) and France (~370,000).
The rest of the surviving European Jews (~480,000) immigrated to the small and agriculturally poor Romanian Colony of the Holy Land where they already constituted a comfortable majority of cca. 71% of the population. That massive demographic pressure had led to a steady influx of Jewish colonists into the less populated areas of the neighbouring Levant and the unavoidable clashes with the local population and the Levantine Army.
With more and more Jews coming every week from France, the Colonial Authorities of the Holy Land had no choice but to encite them to settle over the border in Levantine territory and join their brethren who were already in excess of 55,000. For the Levantines, the situation was completely unacceptable.
March 1682
The Levantine authorities decided to expel all the Jews squating on their territory. For Romania, which had no means to accomodate the expellees in the already overcrowded Holy Land, the only possible solutions were to prop up the Jewish militias or to invade the Levant and start the war with the Islamic Alliance. The Romanians chose the former.
April 1682 - January 1683
With the Levantine Army trying to eliminate all Jewish presence from the Levant, the previously isolated skirmishes with the Jewish militias turned into a full-fledged war, a war which the Jewish irregulars were clearly losing against the superior numbers and fire power of the Levantine Army.
By the end of the year, despite the generous caches of weapons, ammuniton and explosives received from the Romanian Army, the Jewish militias were largely defeated and the victorious Levantines were already expelling or murdering the Jewish civilians.
February 1683
After an Ultimatum which remained unanswered, the Empire of the Orient declared war to the Levant and the Romanian Colonial Army, augmented with Legionnaires from the Metropole, prepared to invade the Levant from the North (Asia Minor) and West (Syria, Lebanon, the Holy Land and the Sinai).
In quick succession, Persia, Arabia and Egypt declared war to Romania, Greece, Armenia and Georgia and mobilized their armies for the war they were preparing for over a decade.
The Levant terminated their already meaningless Protectorate status, quit the Empire of the Levant and proclaimed its full Independence.
The Romanian-Islamic War
The Islamic Alliance (pop. ~40 million, army 1,880,000 - 3,930,000)
- the Persian Empire (pop. 23 million, army 700,000 - 1,800,000)
- Egypt (pop. 12 million, army 300,000 - 800,000)
- the Arabian Caliphate (pop. 4 million, army 500,000 - 700,000)
- the Levant (pop. 1.8 million, army 230,000 - 350,000)
- Turkish rebels in Asia Minor (150,000 - 280,000)
The Empire of the Orient (pop. ~25 million, army 1,900,000 - 3,720,000)
- the Empire of Romania (14.5 million, army 1,000,000 - 2,300,000)
- Greece (3.2 million, army 200,000 - 310,000)
- Armenia (3.0 million, army 120,000 - 190,000)
- Georgia (1.4 million, army 30,000 - 100,000)
- Slovakia (0.9 million, army 1,000 - 15,000)
- Cossack irregulars in Asia Minor (140,000 - 160,000)
- Jewish irregulars in the Holy Land and the Levant (170,000 - 210,000)
- Italian Colonial Forces in Africa (200,000 - 400,000)
- Sarmatian Expeditionary Force in Asia Minor (25,000)
- German Volunteers (9,000)
- German Navy (5,000)
Theatres of War
- Caucasus (Persia vs. Armenia + Georgia + Romanian Expeditionary Force Caucasus)
- Asia Minor (Persia + Turkish rebels vs. Romania + Greece + Cossack militias + Sarmatian Expeditionary Force)
- Levantine (Levant + Persia vs. Romania + Jewish militias)
- Arabian (Arabia + Egypt vs. Romania + German volunteers)
- African (Egypt vs. Italy)
- Naval - Mediterranian (Egypt vs. Romania + Greece)
- Naval - Red Sea (Arabia vs. Romania)
- Naval - Indian Ocean (Persia vs. Romania + Germany)
1. The Caucasus Theatre of War (March 1683 - November 1687)
The bulk of the Persian Army (500,000 - 780,000) invaded Armenia and then Georgia from their exposed Eastern flanks.
The small Armenian and Georgian armies (150,000 - 290,000 combined) were not able to withstand the formidable force of the Persian attack and the Romanian Expeditionary Force Caucasus (100,000 - 200,000) was not enough to change the balance in the favour of the Christians.
Erevan fell in October 1683 and Armenia capitulated in July 1685. Tilfis fell in September 1685 and Georgia capitulated in March 1686. The battered remnants of the Romanian Expeditionary Force Caucasus retreated to Asia Minor during 1687, leaving Armenia and Georgia under Persian occupation for the duration of the war.
The main reason for the humiliating defeat of the Romanian Legionnaires was considered at that time to have been the difficult logistics in a far away mountainous region with a poor road infrastructure, few navigable rivers and little food readily available. Today, some historians suggest that the war had not been taken seriously in Romania where years of nationalist propaganda made everyone believe that defeating the Muslims would be a walk in the park. Regardless of the reasons, the defeat caused a significant furore in Romania and the subsequent fall of the Romanian Government.
The Persian occupation in Armenia and Georgia was rather light, with violence and atrocities being relatively rare and the requisitions bearable. The Persian Empire did not attempt to annex the occupied countries or change their existing laws and customs.
2. The Asia Minor Theatre of War (May 1683 - December 1710)
Of all the theatres of war, Asia Minor was by far the most complex and contested, with the most countries involved, the largest number of soldiers, a massive long term Turkish insurrection, the largest and most important battles and the longest duration of the hostilities.
The best Legions of the Romanian Army (600,000 - 1,000,000), the Romanian Colonial Forces (180,000 - 240,000), the Cossack militias (cca. 150,000), the Greek Army (130,000 - 250,000) and the Sarmatian Expeditionary Force (cca. 25,000) battled the Persian Armies (650,000 - 1,450,000) and the Turkish rebels (150,000 - 280,000) to a stalemate for an incredible 27 years.
The frontlines advanced Eastwards and retreated Westwards with a exasperating periodicity, leaving behind death and destruction. Angora changed hands eleven times and Sinope nine times, being almost completely destroyed in the process.
At the end of the War, the population of Asia Minor was halved (cca. 1.3 million dead or displaced) and the military casualties were enormous (about half a million on each side). The cost of the war is difficult to acertain but it was probably astronomic, with both Romania and Persia ending the war nearly bankrupt.
3. The Levantine Theatre of War (June 1683 - April 1699)
At first, the Levantine Armies (230,000 - 350,000) were alone against the Romanian Colonial Forces (80,000 - 130,000) and the Jewish militias (170,000 - 210,000) and neither side was able to make any progress.
The arrival of the Persian Armies from Mesopotamia (250,000 - 300,000) changed the balance of forces in favour of the Islamic Alliance and the Romanian and Jewish forces were quickly pushed over the Jordan river (1688).
When the enemy crossed the Jordan and threatened Jerusalem, Romania send its Legionnaires (cca. 330,000) to regain the initiative and drive the Persian and Levantine soldiers out of the Holy Land (1691).
The Romanians took advantage of their momentum and, in a brazen and unexpected attack, advanced rapidly in the Levant and captured Damascus (December 1691).
With their Capital in the hands of the enemy and their Emir in captivity, the Levantine armies started to disintegrate, leaving large gaps in the failing frontlines. Unable to contain the Romanian invasion alone, the Persian Armies began a fighting retreat towards Mesopotamia (1692).
By the end of 1693, most of the Levant was under Romanian occupation and the Romanian vanguard crossed the Persian border into Mesopotamia. The Levantine State was meticulously dismantled, partitioned and officially annexed to the Romanian Colonies of Syria, Lebanon, Holy Land and Sinai (March 1694).
The Romanian advance into Mesopotamia slowed down during the following years and, seeing that further progress in unlikely, the overextended Romanian Armies were called back and retreated into the Levant. The exhausted Persian forces did not pursue the Romanians and the Levantine Theatre of War turned silent.
4. The Arabian Theatre of War (January 1684 - August 1707)
A rapid Egyptian advance (120,000) captured the western half of the Canal Zone, reaching the Sinai Canal and blocking all naval traffic (1684).
The Romanian Armies from Sinai and the Canal Zone (140,000 - 270,000) were overwhelmed by the coordinated offensive from the South-East (230,000 Arabs) and the West (310,000 Egyptians) and had to retreat to the Holy Land, leaving the Sinai under Muslim occupation (1685).
The subsequent Muslim offensive in the Holy Land stalled and the arrival of the Romanian Legionnaires (100,000 - 460,000) turned the tide in the favour of the Romanians (1686).
The Sinai was liberated in an arduous campaign (1686-1688), pushing the Egyptians over the Sinai Canal and the Arabs in Arabia Petraea.
Despite the vaillant efforts of the Romanian soldiers, the Egyptian Army held the front on the Sinai Canal and an invasion of Egypt proved to be impossible at that moment (1689).
The Romanians turned to the battered Arab armies and, after capturing Arabia Petraea (1690), advanced southwards, until stopped by the desert heat, lack of water, impossible logistics and disease (1692), just like in the similarly doomed campaign of Empress Iulia from 1652.
After the Egyptian exit from the War (see below) and the reopening of the Sinai Canal (1701), the Arabian campaign was renewed with the massive logistical support provided by the Navy.
The Romanian southward advance was slow and difficult but implacable. Jeddah fell in November 1702, Medina in January 1704 and Mecca in February 1706.
The Caliph was poisoned in May 1706 and Arabia officially capitulated one month later. The Romanian Army vacated the holy cities of Islam during the following year, leaving an occupation force in Jeddah.
5. The African Theatre of War (December 1689 - September 1699)
The Egyptian capture and closure of the Sinai Canal, the Muslim unrest in Italian Africa, the fear of an imminent Egyptian attack and the solidarity with their fellow Christians were the four stated reasons for the Italian intervention against Egypt.
With the bulk of the Egyptian forces guarding the Sinai Canal, the Italian Colonial Forces from Tripolitania (200,000 - 400,000), supported by the Italian and German navies, invaded Cyrenaica against feeble Egyptian resistance (50,000 - 170,000).
With Cyrenaica captured (1690), the Italians stopped at the narrow passage between the Mediterranian Littoral and the Qattara Depression [2], where the Egyptians managed to hold the front for seven years.
A lucky Italian breakthrough (1697) led to the rapid collapse of the Egyptian defences. The Italians reached the Nile Delta in April 1698, captured Alexandria in September 1698 and Cairo in February 1699.
With more and more Egyptian soldiers removed from the defense of the Sinai Canal, the Romanian Colonial Forces from Sinai crossed the Canal, liberated the western half of the Canal Zone and invaded Egypt from the east (June 1699).
When the invading Italian and Romanian armies met on the Nile south of Cairo, the Egyptians realized that their position is untennable and sued for peace.
[2] The only bottleneck before the Nile Delta (the site of the OTL battles of El-Alamein).
6. The Mediterranian Naval Theatre of War (March 1684 - June 1684)
The combined Romanian and Greek Navies destroyed the Egyptian Navy in two completely one-sided battles. Afterwards, the Christian Warships enjoyed absolute supremacy in the Mediterranian and shelled the harbour of Alexandria damaging the portuar facilities.
7. The Red Sea Naval Theatre of War (July 1701)
After the damage to the Sinai Canal was repaired, the Romanian Navy entered the Red Sea and obliterated the Arabian Navy. Afterwards, the Navy continued to offer invaluable logistical support to the advancing Romanian Army for the remainder of the Arabian Campaign.
8. The Indian Ocean Naval Theatre of War (June 1702 - January 1711)
With the Sinai Canal open, the Romanian and German Navies sailed to the Indian Ocean to attack the Persian ships and harbours. Both sides lost a significant number of warships but, after a couple of years, the Christian Navies started to prevail, achieving naval superiority in 1705 and supremacy in 1707.
No longer fearing the feeble remains of the once mighty Persian Navy, the Christian warships entered the Persian Gulf and began to strike at the heart of the Persian Empire with impunity. The Persian harbours were damaged or destroyed and a large part of the Persian trade with India and the Far East was gutted.
The End of the War
After almost 28 years of war, the Romanians were nearing the bottom of both their coffers and of their manpower. The human and material losses were enormous and the rate at which both soldiers and money were lost was alarming.
March 1711
With the entirety of the Romanian civilian society adamantely against the hopeless continuation of the war, the Romanian Senate and the aging Empress Maria I urged the Army to accept a negotiated peace.
Faced with a possible revolt at home and a very probable future lack of material support, the powerful Romanian Generals conceded and let the Romanian Government sent its peace feelers to Persia.
2 May 1711
An Armistice ended the state of war between the Christian Coalition and the Islamic Alliance.
12 March 1712
Persia, Egypt, Arabia on one side and Romania, Greece, Armenia, Georgia, Slovakia, Italy, Sarmatia, Germany on the other side signed the
Peace Treaty of Erevan in the Armenian Capital. Its main provisions are summarized below:
- Armenia and Georgia were excluded from the Empire of the Orient and placed under Persian Protection.
- The Romanian annexations of Turkey and the Levant were officially recognized.
- Western Mesopotamia (part of the Levant since the Second European War) was annexed by Persia and reunited with Eastern Mesopotamia.
- Romania was allowed to keep a garrison in the Arabian port of Jeddah.
- Arabia recognized the Romanian annexation of Socotra.
- Arabia ceded the port of Aden to Romania.
- Egypt ceded Cyrenaica to Italy.
- Egypt ceded to Romania an additional buffer along the Canal Zone border and its Red Sea Coast south of the 19th parallel. [3]
- Egypt was placed under Romanian Protection.
- Romania was allowed to keep a garrison in Alexandria.
- All prisoners of war were to be exchanged.
- No reparations were to be paid.
- The Islamic Alliance was terminated.
- All signatories pledged to refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of the others.
[3] Parts of OTL Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia.
Conclusions
- While Romania gained some territories in Arabia and Africa, annexed most of the Levant and gained influence in Egypt, it lost control over Armenia and Georgia which were detached from the Empire of the Orient and placed under the Protection of Persia. After a 28 years war which had led to the deaths of more than half a million Romanian soldiers, that was certainly not a good deal!
- Armenia and Georgia exchanged their Christian Protector (Romania) with a Muslim one (Persia).
- Greece, Slovakia and Sarmatia fought for nought.
- Italy gained Cyrenaica.
- Germany helped maintain the route to its Colonies open through the Sinai Canal.
- The Cossacks retained a free hand in parts of Asia Minor.
- The Jews gained a free hand in parts of the Levant.
- Persia gained Western Mesopotamia and influence in Armenia and Georgia.
- Arabia ceded Aden and the control of Jeddah.
- Egypt lost its peripheral territories and its full sovereignty.
- Turkey and the Levant vanished from the map.
Whether Romania lost the War or not was debatable but its biggest winner was clearly Persia. That is the reason why the
Romanian-Islamic War was rarely mentioned in Romania and slowly faded into obscurity until it became
the forgotten war. The proud Romanians hate being reminded of their failures.