Establishing an Empire
Being the only neutral country in Western Europe during the War of French Aggression, the Mediterranean Republic had profited handsomely from it. They had made loans to most of the major parties in the war, contributing most of the money to fuel the British for both wars, along with the French, Prussian, and Austrian governments. They had also contributed money to the Portuguese, who had defaulted on their loans. Girard-Roux had commanded the MRN to blockade Portugal along with seize the islands Azores, Cape Verde, and Madeira. Following that the Portuguese King John VI, Joao in Portuguese, would call for a meeting in the Balearic islands. There Joao and Roux would end hostilities between the two nations with the Treaty of Palma. In the treaty, Portugal would cede all seized islands, along with Guinea, Goa and Malacca, for a pardon of their debts and a Non-Aggression pact between the two. Roux would return to Marseilles with new territory that he would need new immigrants and a navy to get them there.
To combat this, he would commission five new ship of the lines, ten De Grasse class frigates, and twenty smaller frigates. As for the immigrant problem, well that would turn out to solve itself. With the war taking place in northern France, a lot of French civilians would flee to the Republic, that along with a small amount of Spanish refugees would be sent to Guinea, Goa, and Malacca. While many of the lower class civilians who had little to nothing would be sent to the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde to work on the farms and plantations. After the razing of Dunkirk, all the citizens would also flee to Republic, and they themselves were almost redistributed among the new territories, but Roux after hearing the stories and suffering they had endured that winter, would allow them the choice to stay or move. Most would choose to stay, and they would build the city New Dunkirk on allotted land.
The Ottoman Empire had long since been referred to as the Sleeping Giant of Europe and during the the War of French Aggression they had paid close attention to the actions of Austria and Russia. After seeing the fact that Austria and Russia were both bloodied following the war, Selim III had been convinced that it would be his turn to retake lands lost to the Russian Empire. But before he would do that he would need to modernize the Ottoman Army, which not be welcomed by many of the higher ranking generals and heavily disapproved of by Janissaries in the Army. Selim would not hear anything and continue to try to modernize the army which drove the Janissaries into the planning of a Coup d'Etat. On September 12th of 1817 they would kill Selim III. But what they had actually done was pave the way for his successor Mahmud II, who in turn would disband and massacre the Janissaries. Mahmud II would then modernize the Army and commit some new reforms that were required.
Nationalism had been on the rise in the Ottoman Empire, and all of the European parts of the Empire were eager to revolt. It would start with two separate rebellions in Moldova and Serbia which would each be put down violently by Mahmud. Following that, Greece would go into revolt, and the Greeks would reach out to all nations for loans and any assistance they could give. Two nations would answer the call, the Russian Empire and Mediterranean Republic, and begin to smuggle weapons to the Greeks. Girard-Roux would even begin to start mobilizing troops in Sicily, he had been eyeing the islands of Cyprus, Crete and Rhodes for a time now and he finally had his excuse. He would meet with the Russian Emperor Alexander I in Azov, where the two would agree to supporting the Greeks in their revolution.
On October 31st, the Republic would land troops in Crete and Rhodes catching the Ottoman Army there off guard and their navies there would be confiscated and added to the MRN. On the first of November the Russians would begin an assault on Ottoman Moldova and a push into Armenia. The Ottomans were completely surprised by the twin attack of the European powerhouses, and had already lost a lot of ground in Moldova. They had adopted a Russia first policy that would distribute most of the new recruits to the Russian fronts since they feared that the Russians wouldn't stop till Constantinople had fallen. Meanwhile a combined Greco-Marseille army would deliver a crushing defeat to the Ottomans at the Battle of Attica, and the Republic had fully pacified Rhodes and Crete and would begin to land troops on Cyprus. Russia on the other hand would have much harder time, with the Armenian campaign almost at a standstill, a lot more troops were being forced into Moldova and Ukraine.
The Ottomans had pushed towards Odessa and were threatening to cut off and surround the Russian army in Moldova. The Battle of Odessa would be the most decisive battle in the war, but Odessa would remain in Russian hands. The battle would leave over 10,000 from both sides dead.The Greek rebels had taken their fight out of Greece and now were pushing into Albania and Macedonia. Mahmud would eventually would be brought to his knees following the loss of Cyprus and the blockade of Constantinople. He would call for peace and in Athens he would sign the Treaty of Athens. In the treaty, he would release Greece, Albania and Macedonia would be ceded over to the Greeks as well. Also, Moldova would be signed over to the Russians, while Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus and numerous smaller islands would be give to the Republic.
It would come to a vote in the Republic that whether or not that Girard-Roux would even need to run again. People were happy with everything that he had done for them and the people would vote to create the Marseilles Empire. In the Empire, all original territories along with Marseilles Spain, Sicily, and Malta would be given seats at the council for the newly crowned Francois I of Marseilles.
Pic-Battle of Odessa
