Well no one else was going to take it so, given they've had about seventy years to work on it, they've just expanded their fur trapping and exploration a bit and just claimed it-there's nothing going on there, but it looks nice on a map.
Rule of the Qinlong Emperor
- Thread starter Saepe Fidelis
- Start date
Well no one else was going to take it so, given they've had about seventy years to work on it, they've just expanded their fur trapping and exploration a bit and just claimed it-there's nothing going on there, but it looks nice on a map.
I guess it does
China is now starting to become economically depressed and everything how will China pull through it and what will happen to Korea?
I guess it does
China is now starting to become economically depressed and everything how will China pull through it and what will happen to Korea?
Well, if history teaches us anything it's that China always bounces back.
As for Korea, well she's going to have her moment in the sun soon.
I don't recall seeing this, but help me out... why did this happen?
I'll definitely cover the American secession and the Civil War in greater depth because it's complicated and deserves more than the coverage I just gave it.
Basically, if you remember to a little while ago, a rebellion in America was put down by the British as the rebels tried but failed to recruit the ost notable American general (that is, the most prominent military man from the colonis). As per the deal, the colonies would be given their own parliament and this general would be made the Royal Governor, with near dictatorial powers.
However, standards of living begin to fall as people cannot go west and claim new lands. This means existing farms become more and more overworked as each farmer has more dependents. This eventually leads to great rural poverty while continued British tariffs against American goods depresses industry. Finally, all of the American colonies break away to form their own nation. This happens when Britain is militarily weak-just after the French Wars-and so they leave the Empier with little bloodshed.
However, the northern provinces which are strongly mercantilist are opposed to the new government's policies and structure. A cnofederation of states is set up, which is dominated by the white landed gentry of the south and Virginia. The northern colonies (i.e. Canada and parts of New England) secede from this Confederacy after only a few years because they want a stronger central government to help foster trade and industry. Thus there are two former British colonial states: the Confederated States of America and the Republic of Canada.
As I said, there'll be more, but that's the bare bones for now.
A History of North America: 1790-1850.
The decisive crushing of the American Rebellion in 1779-1885 was but a rustling, a preamble to American history. Its next century and a half would be bloody-soaked in so much blood that even war torn Europe shuddered when the horrors of American history are considered. One prominent British politician said of America ‘our poor American cousins. So close to Mexico yet so far from God.’ By 1790 the British colonial government was fully up and running. General Scott, hero of numerous wars and campaigns against the natives, was an enormously popular Governor General. He petitioned Parliament in Westminster to devolve some powers to the Colonies, and this was eventually granted after much wrangling in 1796. During this time the French Revolution was fully underway, and Britain needed its transatlantic colonies for manpower and resources.
The French Wars gravely affected American attitudes towards Britain. The colonies’ wealth was built upon the smallholding farmer, who made the ideal conscript for the British war machine. Thousands of Americans were pressed into fighting from Gibraltar to Salzburg. From 1796-1814 American forces were deployed in Europe, peaking at 60,000 men in 1812. It is often said that these reinforcements kept the war going far longer than it would have otherwise; that they helped balance out the demographic imbalance between Britain and France. However, the impressment of thousands of honest farmers and their sons soured popular opinion towards the British government. The Quebecois people of Canada were also badly treated by the British, who declared martial law in their province as they feared a pro-French uprising.
Once the war was over, however, life returned to relative normality in the American colonies. The area’s economy, however, quickly suffered. Britain’s wartime demand slumped in peace time, as the government was no longer buying so much provision for the army. Thus, surplus stock was dumped on the American market for virtually nothing. This depressed American industry, and this was hardest felt in the North. During the later years of the 1810’s however, as Britain’s economy improved, its excess supply was still shipped to America. Meanwhile, repeated pleas for free trade between the two sides of the Atlantic fell on deaf ears; it was too profitable to swamp the American market, and it was a way of shackling the colonies to Britain.
Agriculture thus became the watchword of the American economy. However, this was curtailed severely, as the western plains were closed to further settlement due to treaties with the natives of those areas and also the abutment of Mexico, which was too strong for even Britain to make war on a whim with. Thus the west was closed, and farms began to get broken up between sons. Marginal land was cultivated more and more, with the law of diminishing returns being felt hardest by those in the North, where families were generally larger. The South, however, with its flatter land, good soil and amenable climate, prospered. The invention of the cotton gin and its widespread application made vast plantation ownership ever more profitable. However, in 1822 the British government banned the slave trade, and thus the source of fresh labour dried up. This hurt the Southern economy as slaves had to be treated with a modicum of humanity, and desertions became irreplaceable. Slaves were kept in great barracks with locked gates and dogs. Despite the fact that they were irreplaceable (except by birth) they were still cruelly treated and degraded. Life expectancy for a slave was still only around 25 years.
1825 would prove to be a watershed year for American history. It was the year that the grievances of the industrial class of the North, the martial aristocracy of the South and the settler farmer of the centre collided and coalesced into a mass movement for independence. Britain was weak; her navy was rivalled by that of France, and her army was battered and morale low. Ireland was still under martial law, and some 120,000 soldiers were permanently stationed there. Therefore, on the 13th March 1826, the American Congress in Philadelphia voted to secede from the British Empire. The secession movement relied heavily on the Southern elite for success, specifically the slave-owning plantation owners who dominated politics south of the Mason Dixon Line. It was this elite, therefore, which had the power to craft the new nation however they saw fit.
First, however, there was the issue of national security. British garrisons across the Appalachians declared their loyalty to the Crown and the Governor General, James Malthus declared the Secession Bill illegal and ordered the arrest of all its signatories. For nine months a low-key guerrilla war was waged in the Appalachians. The Southern martial aristocrats who had signed the Secession Bill defended it, and well. the British were defeated and granted safe passage out of America via Quebec.
On 4th August 1827, the Constitution was approved by a majority of the states; all the Southern States including Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio. Massachusetts, Upper Canada, Quebec, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire, however, voted against it. The Constitution founded the Confederated States of America. This would be a loose confederation, with each state having its own legislature and judiciary, with a President and Congress to be housed in Philadelphia (one concession made by the Dixiecrats to the Northerners) who would have powers of arbitration, yet each Bill passed by Congress would have to be accepted by the state Governors before it could be implemented as law. The Congress would not have the power to tax, however it could apply import duties on certain ports if that state consented to the tariff.
This confederation was immediately ruptured in 1828, when Upper Canada, Quebec and the District of Maine seceded and founded the Republic of Canada. This had its capital in Quebec and had a strong central authority-the Congress and the Senate, with a somewhat weak president. It was, however, devoted to industrialisation, and passed protective tariffs to help its nascent industry develop. It was also amenable to immigrants, and thousands arrived from Europe, especially from Germany and Ireland.
The Confederation could do little to stop these states from leaving, as it had no standing army as of then. One was founded in 1831, yet it only numbered 5,000 men. each state had its own militia, which could be deployed at the Governors’ discretion, yet ultimate war-making powers rested with Congress. The state was committed to free trade and laissez faire, as the Southern political elites favoured free trade so they could sell their cotton to Mexico, Britain and France. Britain raised high tariffs against American cotton, yet Mexico and France proved to be eager buyers. New Orleans remained the biggest port in the Confederacy, and it continued to grow as cotton was shipped south as well as east. This earned huge profits for Southern landowners, yet a lack of investment and lack of import barriers meant the Northern economy was still held back. Population growth began to slow down, as families grew smaller to preserve their family farms, and it became harder and harder to scrape together a dowry. There was a temporary measure to prevent immediate economic collapse, and that was the opening of the eastern Mississippi lands to colonisation. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri were founded from 1828-1845 and settled mostly by Northerners. Meanwhile, the Republic of Canada claimed Michigan and Minnesota. This land was settled mostly by Irish and French farmer-settlers.
Northern despair with the Confederate government steadily grew throughout the 1830s and 40s, as their industry was strangled by foreign competition and they were not able to raise sufficient tariffs to protect their industry. If one state did raise tariffs, then it neighbour would lower them, take all its trade and then export by land the imported goods back into the closed off state. Finally, in 1847 representatives of Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee met in Philadelphia to discus secession. They drafted a new Constitution which would enshrine government protection of industry as well as basic freedoms. There was also a strong abolitionist movement, strongest among the more northern states yet still present in the smallholders of Kentucky and Tennessee. Finally, on the 4th July 1847 they presented their joint Bill of Secession to the Confederate Congress. It was met by uproar from the Southern delegates, who walked out of the proceedings. Left with possession of the chamber, the secessionist delegates went on to approve the constitution, outlaw chattel slavery within the secessionist states and decided upon a name for their new country: the Union of American States.
War was inevitable at this point, and war came when beckoned. For three years it raged, as the Southern states fought to re-exert their economic dominance. However, the North had a greater population and it had foreign backing. Both Canada and Britain supported the secessionists, and provided them with arms and equipment. In 1849 Canada declared war on the Confederacy and marched a column of 2,000 soldiers south through Michigan into the Mississippi valley. At this point international arbitration was arranged. France, Britain, Mexico and Spain, as interested yet non-involved parties (Britain was involved yet secretly so) prepared an ultimatum which was sent to every warring party. The Northern States would form the Union of American states, yet it would not have possession of Maryland (which it had occupied) and the Confederacy would have the power to blockade the Mississippi any time it wished without this being an act of war. If the Union declared war for any dispute over the use of the Mississippi then Britain and France would guarantee the Confederacy’s territorial integrity. All parties agreed to this ultimatum, and on the 17th February 1850 the American War of Partition ended.
The Union immediately erected great import tariffs and its economy began the long and painful process of industrialisation. Meanwhile, it moved closer and closer to Canada. Similar in government, outlook and interest, they made an alliance later that year and talk began to circulate of a reunification.
The decisive crushing of the American Rebellion in 1779-1885 was but a rustling, a preamble to American history. Its next century and a half would be bloody-soaked in so much blood that even war torn Europe shuddered when the horrors of American history are considered. One prominent British politician said of America ‘our poor American cousins. So close to Mexico yet so far from God.’ By 1790 the British colonial government was fully up and running. General Scott, hero of numerous wars and campaigns against the natives, was an enormously popular Governor General. He petitioned Parliament in Westminster to devolve some powers to the Colonies, and this was eventually granted after much wrangling in 1796. During this time the French Revolution was fully underway, and Britain needed its transatlantic colonies for manpower and resources.
The French Wars gravely affected American attitudes towards Britain. The colonies’ wealth was built upon the smallholding farmer, who made the ideal conscript for the British war machine. Thousands of Americans were pressed into fighting from Gibraltar to Salzburg. From 1796-1814 American forces were deployed in Europe, peaking at 60,000 men in 1812. It is often said that these reinforcements kept the war going far longer than it would have otherwise; that they helped balance out the demographic imbalance between Britain and France. However, the impressment of thousands of honest farmers and their sons soured popular opinion towards the British government. The Quebecois people of Canada were also badly treated by the British, who declared martial law in their province as they feared a pro-French uprising.
Once the war was over, however, life returned to relative normality in the American colonies. The area’s economy, however, quickly suffered. Britain’s wartime demand slumped in peace time, as the government was no longer buying so much provision for the army. Thus, surplus stock was dumped on the American market for virtually nothing. This depressed American industry, and this was hardest felt in the North. During the later years of the 1810’s however, as Britain’s economy improved, its excess supply was still shipped to America. Meanwhile, repeated pleas for free trade between the two sides of the Atlantic fell on deaf ears; it was too profitable to swamp the American market, and it was a way of shackling the colonies to Britain.
Agriculture thus became the watchword of the American economy. However, this was curtailed severely, as the western plains were closed to further settlement due to treaties with the natives of those areas and also the abutment of Mexico, which was too strong for even Britain to make war on a whim with. Thus the west was closed, and farms began to get broken up between sons. Marginal land was cultivated more and more, with the law of diminishing returns being felt hardest by those in the North, where families were generally larger. The South, however, with its flatter land, good soil and amenable climate, prospered. The invention of the cotton gin and its widespread application made vast plantation ownership ever more profitable. However, in 1822 the British government banned the slave trade, and thus the source of fresh labour dried up. This hurt the Southern economy as slaves had to be treated with a modicum of humanity, and desertions became irreplaceable. Slaves were kept in great barracks with locked gates and dogs. Despite the fact that they were irreplaceable (except by birth) they were still cruelly treated and degraded. Life expectancy for a slave was still only around 25 years.
1825 would prove to be a watershed year for American history. It was the year that the grievances of the industrial class of the North, the martial aristocracy of the South and the settler farmer of the centre collided and coalesced into a mass movement for independence. Britain was weak; her navy was rivalled by that of France, and her army was battered and morale low. Ireland was still under martial law, and some 120,000 soldiers were permanently stationed there. Therefore, on the 13th March 1826, the American Congress in Philadelphia voted to secede from the British Empire. The secession movement relied heavily on the Southern elite for success, specifically the slave-owning plantation owners who dominated politics south of the Mason Dixon Line. It was this elite, therefore, which had the power to craft the new nation however they saw fit.
First, however, there was the issue of national security. British garrisons across the Appalachians declared their loyalty to the Crown and the Governor General, James Malthus declared the Secession Bill illegal and ordered the arrest of all its signatories. For nine months a low-key guerrilla war was waged in the Appalachians. The Southern martial aristocrats who had signed the Secession Bill defended it, and well. the British were defeated and granted safe passage out of America via Quebec.
On 4th August 1827, the Constitution was approved by a majority of the states; all the Southern States including Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Ohio. Massachusetts, Upper Canada, Quebec, Vermont, Connecticut and New Hampshire, however, voted against it. The Constitution founded the Confederated States of America. This would be a loose confederation, with each state having its own legislature and judiciary, with a President and Congress to be housed in Philadelphia (one concession made by the Dixiecrats to the Northerners) who would have powers of arbitration, yet each Bill passed by Congress would have to be accepted by the state Governors before it could be implemented as law. The Congress would not have the power to tax, however it could apply import duties on certain ports if that state consented to the tariff.
This confederation was immediately ruptured in 1828, when Upper Canada, Quebec and the District of Maine seceded and founded the Republic of Canada. This had its capital in Quebec and had a strong central authority-the Congress and the Senate, with a somewhat weak president. It was, however, devoted to industrialisation, and passed protective tariffs to help its nascent industry develop. It was also amenable to immigrants, and thousands arrived from Europe, especially from Germany and Ireland.
The Confederation could do little to stop these states from leaving, as it had no standing army as of then. One was founded in 1831, yet it only numbered 5,000 men. each state had its own militia, which could be deployed at the Governors’ discretion, yet ultimate war-making powers rested with Congress. The state was committed to free trade and laissez faire, as the Southern political elites favoured free trade so they could sell their cotton to Mexico, Britain and France. Britain raised high tariffs against American cotton, yet Mexico and France proved to be eager buyers. New Orleans remained the biggest port in the Confederacy, and it continued to grow as cotton was shipped south as well as east. This earned huge profits for Southern landowners, yet a lack of investment and lack of import barriers meant the Northern economy was still held back. Population growth began to slow down, as families grew smaller to preserve their family farms, and it became harder and harder to scrape together a dowry. There was a temporary measure to prevent immediate economic collapse, and that was the opening of the eastern Mississippi lands to colonisation. Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri were founded from 1828-1845 and settled mostly by Northerners. Meanwhile, the Republic of Canada claimed Michigan and Minnesota. This land was settled mostly by Irish and French farmer-settlers.
Northern despair with the Confederate government steadily grew throughout the 1830s and 40s, as their industry was strangled by foreign competition and they were not able to raise sufficient tariffs to protect their industry. If one state did raise tariffs, then it neighbour would lower them, take all its trade and then export by land the imported goods back into the closed off state. Finally, in 1847 representatives of Massachusetts, Delaware, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Vermont, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee met in Philadelphia to discus secession. They drafted a new Constitution which would enshrine government protection of industry as well as basic freedoms. There was also a strong abolitionist movement, strongest among the more northern states yet still present in the smallholders of Kentucky and Tennessee. Finally, on the 4th July 1847 they presented their joint Bill of Secession to the Confederate Congress. It was met by uproar from the Southern delegates, who walked out of the proceedings. Left with possession of the chamber, the secessionist delegates went on to approve the constitution, outlaw chattel slavery within the secessionist states and decided upon a name for their new country: the Union of American States.
War was inevitable at this point, and war came when beckoned. For three years it raged, as the Southern states fought to re-exert their economic dominance. However, the North had a greater population and it had foreign backing. Both Canada and Britain supported the secessionists, and provided them with arms and equipment. In 1849 Canada declared war on the Confederacy and marched a column of 2,000 soldiers south through Michigan into the Mississippi valley. At this point international arbitration was arranged. France, Britain, Mexico and Spain, as interested yet non-involved parties (Britain was involved yet secretly so) prepared an ultimatum which was sent to every warring party. The Northern States would form the Union of American states, yet it would not have possession of Maryland (which it had occupied) and the Confederacy would have the power to blockade the Mississippi any time it wished without this being an act of war. If the Union declared war for any dispute over the use of the Mississippi then Britain and France would guarantee the Confederacy’s territorial integrity. All parties agreed to this ultimatum, and on the 17th February 1850 the American War of Partition ended.
The Union immediately erected great import tariffs and its economy began the long and painful process of industrialisation. Meanwhile, it moved closer and closer to Canada. Similar in government, outlook and interest, they made an alliance later that year and talk began to circulate of a reunification.
Good good a divided america is a good america
(just kidding)
Ooh . . . well there's going to be a new union coming bout soon.
Oh dang it oh no oh no no no no noooooooooooooo
The ultimate plans are now ruin the taco's will never annex mexico, while their won't be a partition of the U.S, Russia will never have RUpert's land while the confederate's won't act british.
The world is falling apart hide your donkies eat your corn after this their is no coming back.
on a serioius not if Canada and the northern states do unite I think they would be able to reasert authority in the rebelliouls states in the south.
They will, but the Confederates have lots of friends in high places, and they wouldn't take kindly to their little satellite in America getting curb-stomped by a potential superpower.
Next update is on 19th century Europe-the War of the Fourth Coalition and the 1861 Emperors' War.
While America divided and re-divided itself, the states of Europe reorganised themselves to what they hoped would be their definitive borders. The French Wars had left three powers bitterly envious of their French hegemon. The first was Prussia; poor, defeated and stripped of all dignity. the majesty of her meteoric rise to power was smashed by her ignominious defeats-at Cologne, Minden and Magdeburg. The French and Russians had shorn her of all her hard-won territories so that all she had left was ancestral Brandenburg and Silesia as an awkward appendage. Even East Prussia and Konigsburg were absorbed into the Russian behemoth. From her defeat in 1814 she had stewed; King Frederick William V was an able administrator yet he only had so much to play with. He enacted conscription and began rearming immediately, and signed binding alliances with Austria and Britain, yet Prussia was definitely a second-rate power by the 1830s. her economy was depressed and although much was done to industrialise Silesia, Prussia’s tiny population meant that it fell far behind the industrial titans of the world.
The two most formidable countries to lose out to France were Austria and Great Britain. Austria had been beaten again and again, and so after its defeat in 1815 in which Vienna was shelled and Prague captured, immediately reform was needed. Emperor Joseph IV was the perfect man for this situation. He reorganised the Empire into provinces and counties and rebuilt the Austrian army from scratch. He founded an Officers’ Academe where the battles of Hannibal, Duvallier and the other great generals were studied over and over again. These officers were then given command of newly formed units. The elite units spoke Germans, although there were Magyar, Croat, Slovenian, Czech and Slovak battalions with their own officers drawn from their ethnicity’s elite. This new army was stationed along the Isonzo and Salzburg. The Emperor also did much to industrialise the Empire-Hungary and Austria itself became modern industrial areas during his long and distinguished reign. Despite these reforms, freedom of speech and assembly were curtailed; nationalist movements were doggedly pursued and destroyed. One meeting of Czech nationalists was brought to a sombre close when one member noted that if the roof above them collapsed, the Czech national consciousness would be extinguished-possibly forever.
The third power to be wronged was Britain, which suffered least materially or territorially, yet fifteen years of defeats and set backs had nipped her imperial growth in the bud. India was all but abandoned, as Britain did not have the funds to support its territories there. Because of this, the Mughals and Maratha began to re-exert their power on the subcontinent and by 1820 had all but recovered from European encroachment. Britain’s industrial revolution was, however, in full swing and her economy began to explode with new capitalist vitality. The Imperial policy of splendid isolation was, however, abandoned; alliances were made with Austria and Prussia, and in 1823 they signed the Tripartite Alliance, which bound them together forever against foreign aggression.
French dominance over Europe was loose and highly centred around the Emperor and his two marshals. In 1826 Duvallier died, and a struggle for succession was fought. For a while war looked certain, as Prussia and Austria mobilised their armies. Tsar Michael II of Russia, however, began to mobilise his own forces, and the two German courts backed down. On the 3rd June 1827 Marshal Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France, King of Italy, Lord Protector of Spain, Staatholder of the Netherlands, King of the Walloons and the Flemish, President of Germany and Prince of Bohemia and Moravia. His reign would end in 1846 and after his death his son, Napoleon II, assumed the Imperial mantle. In all of this he was backed by his fiercely loyal armies, which he renamed the Legions. Rather fittingly, given that they showed a cut-throat loyalty to their general and paymaster rather than their nation or to the ideals of the revolution.
Napoleon II was not a bad ruler, yet when compared to Duvallier or even his father, he was nothing special. The Germans became dissatisfied by his imposition of tolls upon cargo moving down the Rhine, and the Italians hated their occupation by 60,000 French soldiers. Tension was building and the continent seemed ready to explode.
Chancellor Paul Fliegersdorf of the Austrian Empire was the most formidable politician of his age. He was also fiercely anti-French, and so weakness within the French bloc was seen as a golden opportunity for Austria to regain its ancient rights and privileges both within its old German sphere of influence yet also the European system. He began by plotting with German nationalists for uprisings across the German Confederation. The states which comprised this unit-Baden Wurtemburg, Bavaria, Hesse and Saxony were all absolute monarchies, whose ruling houses were dominated by their French ‘advisors’ and their sovereignty strictly limited by the Diet of Frankfurt, of which the Emperor was the President and Protector.
On the 25th August 1847, Munich exploded into open rebellion, as nationalists barricaded the streets and chanted for the reunification of Germany under the Hapsburg Dynasty. This swiftly spread throughout the German Confederation, and French soldiers were needed to put down the rebellions in many cities. Frankfurt was torn apart for two months, and in the end two Legions were needed to tear the city apart, killing 6,000 people. While all this was going on, Chancellor Fliegersdorf was engaged in secret talks with Prussian and Russian ambassadors. His greatest obstacle was the Tsar, yet almost miraculously, the pro-French Michael II died in late September and his son-Nicholas I, eagerly signed a pact of non-intervention in affairs west of Danzig.
Detailed plans were made, and finally on the 16th April 1848 a light was put to the German powderkeg. The King of Bavaria was assassinated by a nationalist who was found to have links to Austria. Two days later, France declared war on Austria. Three days after that, Prussia and Britain declared war on France. The Second French War had started.
Austria began by swinging 100,000 men north from Salzburg to take Nuremberg, effectively cutting Bohemia off from South Germany. Prussia, meanwhile, rolled across the North German plain, defeating the French twice in set battle and capturing Hamburg. The French made a counter-attack through Westphalia. They were met by the Prussians at Minden for the second time. This time, the Prussians crushed the French and advanced south into the Rhineland. The Austrians, meanwhile, held the Isonzo River against French attacks while the Italian heartland began to become agitated with French occupation. There were riots in Milan and a nationalist uprising in Turin.
By Spring of 1849 most of North Germany was liberated. Bohemia was invaded by the Austrians in April 1839 and Prague taken a month later. Britain, meanwhile, blockaded France and squeezed her economy dry. However, in mid 1849 the Admiralty informed Parliament that the Prussians were only two months away from capturing Amsterdam. This was alarming as the Parliament feared Prussian dominance of the Low Countries just as much as they feared French dominance of the coastline. They therefore voted to despatch a force to secure Holland so that it might establish itself once more as an independent state. The Hague was shelled for an hour until it surrendered, and the Netherlands were liberated by June. The Prussians, meanwhile, were wheeling south-they had no plans at all to take the Netherlands.
By the close of 1850 most of Germany was liberated from French dominance. Emperor Napoleon II decided to throw all of his Empire’s remaining strength into one final offensive on the Isonzo. He personally led 300,000 French soldiers north east, through fierce Austrian fire, suffering horrendous casualties. They were within 100 miles of Vienna when Austrian reinforcements arrived. They came from the Alps and swooped down, encircling the French in one giant movement. The resulting battle lasted a week and ended with the complete surrender of the French army. The war was over.
The peace settlement of 1851 completely redrew the map of Europe. First of all, Germany was divided between Austria and Prussia. They decided that the northern Protestant kingdoms would go to Prussia whereas the Catholic south would become Austrian. Prussia would also receive the Rhineland to compensate it for the grievous losses France had inflicted upon them in 1814. A series of rigged plebiscites were held in each region which gave a veneer of public support. There were rejoicing as German-speaking armies once more resumed garrison duty along the Rhine.
Italy too was partitioned. Austria was given a free rein by Britain and Prussia, and so she took Venetia, Lombardy, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna for herself. Umbria were made a Grand Duchy with a cadet-line Hapsburg as Grand Duke. The Pope was guaranteed Latium while Spain held onto the south. Austria also took Bohemia and Moravia. Switzerland was made as a buffer state, and its neutrality was assured by Prussia and Austria.
Despite the redrawing of the political map, neither Prussia nor Austria were satisfied. They had both suffered enormously during the French Wars, and despite their remuneration in kind in 1851, Fliegersdorf still bore a grudge again Duvallier’s willing collaborator, a man who had profited so greatly from the deaths of so many Germans and subjects of the Emperor: the Tsar of Russia.
Despite the non-intervention pact made with Nicholas I, both Frederick V and Fliegersdorf made plans to take their vengeance upon Russia. They would retake East Prussia as well as Poland and Ruthenia. They also brought the Ottoman Sultan Murad VI into their talks, as his recent repression of the Wallachians and Serbs had shown him to be a formidable regional player. They agreed that they would jointly declare war on Russia and that their objectives were limited to Russia’s western provinces.
The war began on the 6th May 1855 when Prussian soldiers entered Danzig, swiftly followed by Austrian troops into Lvov and Turkish soldiers storming Iasi. The declaration of war cited historical grievances and territorial theft by past Russian Tsars. The war only lasted three years and ended in total Russian defeat. The Tsarist system had gentrified since the triumphs of 1814 and 1815, and her armies, although huge, were poorly equipped and badly trained. Konigsburg was recaptured in 1856 and Warsaw entered by Prussian troops a month later. The Austrians and the Turks pushed further east, into Moldavia and Ukraine, with Turkish battalions even attacking Kiev.
Britain, however, did not want to see the status quo of Europe to be shattered, and so decided to broker a peace. Her offer was accepted by all parties, and the Congress of Copenhagen began on the 4th October 1858. It resulted in Prussia taking most of northern Poland as well as East Prussia, while Austria took the south and the east-including Ruthenia and Galicia. The Ottomans also helped themselves to Moldavia. The Conference, however, sowed the seeds of discord among the victors, for the Prussian King Frederick William V took the opportunity to have himself declared Emperor of Germany. The Federal Empire of Germany sat to the north of the Austrian Empire, which too claimed to be German. For now, however, the Hapsburgs could do nothing but scowl at the Kaiser in Berlin.
The two most formidable countries to lose out to France were Austria and Great Britain. Austria had been beaten again and again, and so after its defeat in 1815 in which Vienna was shelled and Prague captured, immediately reform was needed. Emperor Joseph IV was the perfect man for this situation. He reorganised the Empire into provinces and counties and rebuilt the Austrian army from scratch. He founded an Officers’ Academe where the battles of Hannibal, Duvallier and the other great generals were studied over and over again. These officers were then given command of newly formed units. The elite units spoke Germans, although there were Magyar, Croat, Slovenian, Czech and Slovak battalions with their own officers drawn from their ethnicity’s elite. This new army was stationed along the Isonzo and Salzburg. The Emperor also did much to industrialise the Empire-Hungary and Austria itself became modern industrial areas during his long and distinguished reign. Despite these reforms, freedom of speech and assembly were curtailed; nationalist movements were doggedly pursued and destroyed. One meeting of Czech nationalists was brought to a sombre close when one member noted that if the roof above them collapsed, the Czech national consciousness would be extinguished-possibly forever.
The third power to be wronged was Britain, which suffered least materially or territorially, yet fifteen years of defeats and set backs had nipped her imperial growth in the bud. India was all but abandoned, as Britain did not have the funds to support its territories there. Because of this, the Mughals and Maratha began to re-exert their power on the subcontinent and by 1820 had all but recovered from European encroachment. Britain’s industrial revolution was, however, in full swing and her economy began to explode with new capitalist vitality. The Imperial policy of splendid isolation was, however, abandoned; alliances were made with Austria and Prussia, and in 1823 they signed the Tripartite Alliance, which bound them together forever against foreign aggression.
French dominance over Europe was loose and highly centred around the Emperor and his two marshals. In 1826 Duvallier died, and a struggle for succession was fought. For a while war looked certain, as Prussia and Austria mobilised their armies. Tsar Michael II of Russia, however, began to mobilise his own forces, and the two German courts backed down. On the 3rd June 1827 Marshal Napoleon was crowned Emperor of France, King of Italy, Lord Protector of Spain, Staatholder of the Netherlands, King of the Walloons and the Flemish, President of Germany and Prince of Bohemia and Moravia. His reign would end in 1846 and after his death his son, Napoleon II, assumed the Imperial mantle. In all of this he was backed by his fiercely loyal armies, which he renamed the Legions. Rather fittingly, given that they showed a cut-throat loyalty to their general and paymaster rather than their nation or to the ideals of the revolution.
Napoleon II was not a bad ruler, yet when compared to Duvallier or even his father, he was nothing special. The Germans became dissatisfied by his imposition of tolls upon cargo moving down the Rhine, and the Italians hated their occupation by 60,000 French soldiers. Tension was building and the continent seemed ready to explode.
Chancellor Paul Fliegersdorf of the Austrian Empire was the most formidable politician of his age. He was also fiercely anti-French, and so weakness within the French bloc was seen as a golden opportunity for Austria to regain its ancient rights and privileges both within its old German sphere of influence yet also the European system. He began by plotting with German nationalists for uprisings across the German Confederation. The states which comprised this unit-Baden Wurtemburg, Bavaria, Hesse and Saxony were all absolute monarchies, whose ruling houses were dominated by their French ‘advisors’ and their sovereignty strictly limited by the Diet of Frankfurt, of which the Emperor was the President and Protector.
On the 25th August 1847, Munich exploded into open rebellion, as nationalists barricaded the streets and chanted for the reunification of Germany under the Hapsburg Dynasty. This swiftly spread throughout the German Confederation, and French soldiers were needed to put down the rebellions in many cities. Frankfurt was torn apart for two months, and in the end two Legions were needed to tear the city apart, killing 6,000 people. While all this was going on, Chancellor Fliegersdorf was engaged in secret talks with Prussian and Russian ambassadors. His greatest obstacle was the Tsar, yet almost miraculously, the pro-French Michael II died in late September and his son-Nicholas I, eagerly signed a pact of non-intervention in affairs west of Danzig.
Detailed plans were made, and finally on the 16th April 1848 a light was put to the German powderkeg. The King of Bavaria was assassinated by a nationalist who was found to have links to Austria. Two days later, France declared war on Austria. Three days after that, Prussia and Britain declared war on France. The Second French War had started.
Austria began by swinging 100,000 men north from Salzburg to take Nuremberg, effectively cutting Bohemia off from South Germany. Prussia, meanwhile, rolled across the North German plain, defeating the French twice in set battle and capturing Hamburg. The French made a counter-attack through Westphalia. They were met by the Prussians at Minden for the second time. This time, the Prussians crushed the French and advanced south into the Rhineland. The Austrians, meanwhile, held the Isonzo River against French attacks while the Italian heartland began to become agitated with French occupation. There were riots in Milan and a nationalist uprising in Turin.
By Spring of 1849 most of North Germany was liberated. Bohemia was invaded by the Austrians in April 1839 and Prague taken a month later. Britain, meanwhile, blockaded France and squeezed her economy dry. However, in mid 1849 the Admiralty informed Parliament that the Prussians were only two months away from capturing Amsterdam. This was alarming as the Parliament feared Prussian dominance of the Low Countries just as much as they feared French dominance of the coastline. They therefore voted to despatch a force to secure Holland so that it might establish itself once more as an independent state. The Hague was shelled for an hour until it surrendered, and the Netherlands were liberated by June. The Prussians, meanwhile, were wheeling south-they had no plans at all to take the Netherlands.
By the close of 1850 most of Germany was liberated from French dominance. Emperor Napoleon II decided to throw all of his Empire’s remaining strength into one final offensive on the Isonzo. He personally led 300,000 French soldiers north east, through fierce Austrian fire, suffering horrendous casualties. They were within 100 miles of Vienna when Austrian reinforcements arrived. They came from the Alps and swooped down, encircling the French in one giant movement. The resulting battle lasted a week and ended with the complete surrender of the French army. The war was over.
The peace settlement of 1851 completely redrew the map of Europe. First of all, Germany was divided between Austria and Prussia. They decided that the northern Protestant kingdoms would go to Prussia whereas the Catholic south would become Austrian. Prussia would also receive the Rhineland to compensate it for the grievous losses France had inflicted upon them in 1814. A series of rigged plebiscites were held in each region which gave a veneer of public support. There were rejoicing as German-speaking armies once more resumed garrison duty along the Rhine.
Italy too was partitioned. Austria was given a free rein by Britain and Prussia, and so she took Venetia, Lombardy, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna for herself. Umbria were made a Grand Duchy with a cadet-line Hapsburg as Grand Duke. The Pope was guaranteed Latium while Spain held onto the south. Austria also took Bohemia and Moravia. Switzerland was made as a buffer state, and its neutrality was assured by Prussia and Austria.
Despite the redrawing of the political map, neither Prussia nor Austria were satisfied. They had both suffered enormously during the French Wars, and despite their remuneration in kind in 1851, Fliegersdorf still bore a grudge again Duvallier’s willing collaborator, a man who had profited so greatly from the deaths of so many Germans and subjects of the Emperor: the Tsar of Russia.
Despite the non-intervention pact made with Nicholas I, both Frederick V and Fliegersdorf made plans to take their vengeance upon Russia. They would retake East Prussia as well as Poland and Ruthenia. They also brought the Ottoman Sultan Murad VI into their talks, as his recent repression of the Wallachians and Serbs had shown him to be a formidable regional player. They agreed that they would jointly declare war on Russia and that their objectives were limited to Russia’s western provinces.
The war began on the 6th May 1855 when Prussian soldiers entered Danzig, swiftly followed by Austrian troops into Lvov and Turkish soldiers storming Iasi. The declaration of war cited historical grievances and territorial theft by past Russian Tsars. The war only lasted three years and ended in total Russian defeat. The Tsarist system had gentrified since the triumphs of 1814 and 1815, and her armies, although huge, were poorly equipped and badly trained. Konigsburg was recaptured in 1856 and Warsaw entered by Prussian troops a month later. The Austrians and the Turks pushed further east, into Moldavia and Ukraine, with Turkish battalions even attacking Kiev.
Britain, however, did not want to see the status quo of Europe to be shattered, and so decided to broker a peace. Her offer was accepted by all parties, and the Congress of Copenhagen began on the 4th October 1858. It resulted in Prussia taking most of northern Poland as well as East Prussia, while Austria took the south and the east-including Ruthenia and Galicia. The Ottomans also helped themselves to Moldavia. The Conference, however, sowed the seeds of discord among the victors, for the Prussian King Frederick William V took the opportunity to have himself declared Emperor of Germany. The Federal Empire of Germany sat to the north of the Austrian Empire, which too claimed to be German. For now, however, the Hapsburgs could do nothing but scowl at the Kaiser in Berlin.
France isn't so much broken as its hegemony has been broken and a status quo has been brokered in Europe. The question is how well it will play Germany and Austria off against one another.
I like seeing Canada and the U.S together it looks nice
Wel historically speaking, they weren't that different, at least until the mid 19th century, so there weren't really that many permanent boundaries to union-I suppose here necessity and economic need have pushed the two together.
Anyway, next update's on the Ottoman Empire and the Rush for Africa.