Edited a map template I found online by removing India and China. If you want, I'll get rid of Australia too (what was the name in TTL again?)
We see the formation of more defensive/offensive pacts against the European big 3 now. But are polities like Aragon and the Kingdom of the Isles considered too volatile and prone to invasion like Lotharingia to be admitted? Further north, Lotharingian-Russian-Prussian could prove to be quite a powerful alliance but has any feelers been sent out from the Romans? An alliance stretching from the mouth of the Rhine to the Danube would be magnificent!
Thanks. That’s not necessary. I have a template but a big chunk of it is taken up by south China which was annoying for a map I wanted to focus on Southeast Asia. Generally Australia is known as the Wu-land to outsiders; the Wu themselves called it Nan (south). It’s probably going to end up as Australia since the etymology works for TTL as well.
Aragon and the Kingdom of the Isles are issues mainly because, what do they bring to the table? They’re both pretty weak, and they don’t have the strategic location like the League does, unless the Accord got into a war with Rhomania. In that case, they’d be useful as naval bases.
There haven’t been anything in the way of Lotharingian-Roman feelers. Mainly because neither is geographically in a position to help the other.
@ImperatorAlexander: In one of the narrative scenes with Odysseus and Andreas III, Odysseus described himself as short, so he could be a 2nd Little Megas, in a different sense.
@HanEmpire: Excellent analysis. Don’t have anything to add.
There is going to be an economic/social component to Asanes’ and Zimmermann’s ideas of equality, which is absent from classical liberalism. Their ideas are still under development.
@JohnSmith: There was a cadet branch a little while back that ruled Florence between the Dantean War. Cesare’s father wiped that out during the Brothers’ War, which is why Cesare’s concern about Theodor coming calling is legitimate. But now it comes down to just Theodor and Elizabeth.
@InMediasRes: The ideology forming there is still quite inchoate at this point. It certainly wouldn’t be communism as Marx or Lenin knew it. Perhaps some sort of peasant communism, with the village common lands as the example. But at the same time Friedrich is a military man, so he is used to a hierarchy. But at the same time, he has no respect for a hierarchy based on blue blood (he liked Wolfram because he was smart and willing to learn, but fragged his previous CO because he was an idiot who was going to get them all killed).
I think it is, but am not certain of that. But it’d be keeping with the multiple influences on Asanes if he were the descendant of Bulgarians deported by the Romans to eastern Anatolia.
@RogueTraderEnthusiast: A key detail is that the rumors suggest Rhomania expanding to the Alpine frontier of Italy, aka eat the whole peninsula. Rhomania annexing or vassalizing central Italy would be tolerable, but a Rhomania that controls the entire Italian peninsula is an intolerable threat. It’s doesn’t matter why; it’s still too big. Plus the Accord members have no way of knowing if this Rhomania would be inclined to stop.
The situation is modeled after the OTL Russian-Ottoman wars, where a lot of Russia’s gains were lost because a western European power (usually Britain) would barge in shouting about ‘the balance of power’ and force a milder peace treaty.
The issue with a Roman-Lotharingian alliance is that there’s no way Rhomania can substantially help Lotharingia. Can’t march an army across Europe, and a Roman fleet would have to go through the English Channel or around Scotland (the Spanish Armada recommends not doing this). Lotharingia has military engineers and good fortresses; its defensive issue is that it has no real natural defenses.
Rhomania entered the Accord would trigger a serious response from the Triple Monarchy, as that would be an intolerable threat to Triune security. The border between Arles and France is long and doesn’t have much in the way of natural defenses. The Accord, as is, is strong enough to keep the Triunes honest, but not enough to frighten them. If Rhomania joined, killing the Accord would immediately become King’s Harbor #1 foreign policy issue. We’re talking 16th century France battling against Habsburg encirclement type. Henri would very likely start genuinely propping up the HRE to use as a counterweight against Rhomania-Accord.
I’d describe Roman economic theory as ‘expansive mercantilism’. What I mean by this is this.
Picture the world’s economic resources as a pie. Now in this system the pie can be expanded. Population growth, new resources discovered, new trade routes, production improvements, these are all ways the pie can be made bigger. Rhomania during the Flowering experienced all of these.
However with that pie, if country A takes a slice of the pie, that leaves less for B, so there is a zero-sum game in play here as well.
Free trade within the Empire is good; it grows the pie and increases government revenue since there’s more income to tax. But free trade with those outside of the Empire…hell no. There can be some most-favored-nation tariff reductions on certain products, but that’s a diplomatic tool, a carrot for good behavior. Not an economic tool.
The Empire’s already experienced free trade with foreigners…in the 12th and 13th centuries…with Italian merchants. That humiliation, that abomination, will never, ever, happen again.
There’s also some belief in economic circles that the government should have a hand in the economy, not necessarily for economic but for social reasons. Such as guaranteeing that essentials are kept cheap. So laissez-faire is out. It sounds like a good way for dynatoi to exploit the poor and get more powerful, a prospect that has the White Palace reaching for the eyeball knives.
Elizabeth will turn 29 in 1634.
@Tirion: Roman Vienna could be useful as a sort of tripwire that guards Hungary against the HRE by ensuring Roman support. Although a Hungary occupied by the Romans would most likely want a German invasion.
@catconqueror: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms has been an inspiration for all this (hence the quotes), but I’m not consciously following any of the specific campaigns. That said, there were many quotes I found that perfectly apply here.
The post-patreon updates have been substantially bigger. I think the update was bigger than the average, but not by a huge margin, although I found it ‘meatier’.
@Curtain Jerker: I’m looking forward to when I get to the point where Zimmermann is a major part, rather than just germinating as he is now.
I will be throwing some big rocks at the Triple Monarchy, although like I said I prefer only having one BIG THING going on at one time, and there are lots of BIG THINGS down the pipeline for Rhomania and the HRE. That said, this update did plant a small seed for that rock (and now I’m mixing metaphors).
This is the first mention of the Ravens’ Rebellion; I only settled on the name while I was working on how to work in a reference in the update.
@Khaine: Monkey bite, stepped on by an elephant, fell into a pool that’d been stocked by piranhas somehow, there are lots of possibilities…
@Evilprodigy: It’s possible I mixed up a population figure for the northern provinces (OTL Netherlands) as one for all of the Low Countries.
That’s a good question and I know I’ve been deliberately vague on the exact borders throughout the TL. I’m going to have to do more research and the results merit being included in the regular TL. There are not-Rhomania regional updates down the pipeline so that seems like a good place for it. So I’m going to have to give you a rain check on this. Sorry. (It’s likely that I’ll be retconning the pop figure in that future update.)
@Aristomenes: Zimmermann definitely won’t be becoming a pacifist; my arc really doesn’t mesh with that.
Dalmatia and Istria is a combined Roman vassal state (not a Despotate but a proper vassal), and its ruling Duchess is Demetrios III’s sister (who hasn’t had much of a presence in the TL). Currently parts of the area are occupied by Allied forces, with the coastal cities under a loose landward blockade, but none are in serious danger.
@CV12Hornet: A note on my maps. They’re good for a rough outline, but they’re not exactly precision instruments. I know they’re a useful resource, but I just don’t enjoy making them.
@Duke of Nova Scotia: Yup, the Bohemians are loyal to the concept of the Holy Roman Empire. They want to take it over, or at least be the top dog, not destroy it. The Premyslids were Emperors before the Wittelsbachs took the imperial crown.
Spanish-Roman relations are unusual. In Europe they have every reason to be friends. But in the east, they’re bitter rivals with a longstanding history of antagonism with grievances on both sides.
Pronsk-Scythia relations are good, with a lot of trade there. A lot of Scythia’s economy comes from being a conduit for Roman-Russian trade, to the point that Scythia is a de-facto Roman economic satellite.
If Ottokar’s eldest son, Crown Prince Vaclav (who’s currently commanding Bohemia’s contingent on the Danube), were to marry Elizabeth, he’d want to absorb the Wittelsbach lands into the family holdings. Because then there’d be a Premyslid Emperor who controls Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony, Bohemia, Austria, and Bavaria as personal holdings. That’s a power to reckon with, and one that also doesn’t need Henri.
@Babyrage: With the advantage of being on the defensive, the Accord could likely hold out against one of the big boys, or at the very least make the fight so expensive that it’d be a pyrrhic victory for the great power in question. Now regarding an offensive campaign, it’d be easier for the great power, but the Accord is strong enough that it’d still make the war hurt, a lot.
A super-UK is a major threat to the Accord members, but that’s something that already exists. The Triple Monarchy already has a population of 22.5 million. Arles and Spain combined are something like 2/3rds of that. Now a super-Rhomania in the Balkans is much less of a threat than the Triunes, because that’s far away. But a super-Rhomania that’s super because it just gobbled up all of the Italian peninsula is capable of being every bit as big of a threat as a super-UK. The Romans could claim it is defensive expansionism, but the Spanish and Arletians would have every reason to be cynical about such claims, if they even cared.
