SI Archives (6th Draft)

[Guardian54]

Yes, SI Archives has returned, now in Draft 6 with a divergence date pushed back further than ever before. Discussion is welcome (there's a reason it's DRAFT 6), noting of anachronisms is literally invited in the Disclaimers on each Volume, and even volume titles may change if sufficiently requested (though preferably only after we get far enough into a volume to see what's going on)!

And yes, I know I put up a pretty strong butterfly net to make most people and events still develop reasonably similarly up to WWII.

Important terms: OTL = Our/Original Timeline, TTL = This Timeline, ITL/ITTL = In (This) Timeline, ASB = Alien Space Bats.

Way back in 2011, Draft 1 began as an exercise to cram all the Command & Conquer games into one timeline, crossed over later on with Mass Effect, the planned cross eventually grew to include Harry Potter, Rosario + Vampire, Girls und Panzer, RWBY, major elements of Halo, and Kantai Collection. Needless to say, Draft 6 is a different animal entirely with major divergence from OTL over 150 years earlier than in the hideous slag heap that was Draft 1 (before I deleted it). And no, I'm not counting Faroes/Iceland/Greenland for that "major divergence" date.

In this timeline, the most iconic moments of Canadian national identity are expected to be the Great Marches of 1812, the Letters From Baton Rouge, the Battle of the Thin Brown Line and, ultimately, the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields (1914).

XX

Catalogue/Plans To Date:

Series 0: 1770-1910
(IN PROGRESS) 1770-1810, Volume 0-1: Founded of Fear

Spoiler: Everything else approximately planned

(TBD) 1810-1812, Volume 0-2: For The Motherland
(TBD) 1813-1816, Volume 0-3: La Nouvelle Pucelle
(TBD) 1815-1852, Volume 0-4: Americae Ad Portas!
(TBD) 1853-1855, Volume 0-5: The Thin Brown Line
(TBD) 1855-1865, Volume 0-6: The Slavers' War
(TBD) 1865-1884, Volume 0-7: From Sea to Ocean to Ocean to Ocean
(TBD) 1884-1906, Volume 0-8: New Imperialism

Series 1 (all TBD): 1910-19 Great War Era
1906-1912, Volume 1-1: War Warning
1912-1914, Volume 1-2: Pax Mexicana
1914-1915, Volume 1-3: The Catalaunian Fields
1915-1916, Volume 1-4: The Devil Is Coming
1916-1917, Volume 1-5: Expected Exceptionalists
1917-1929, Volume 1-6: How Not To Make Peace


Series 2 (all TBD): 1919-1948 Second World War Era
1929-1936, Volume 2-1: Depression and Defiance
1936-1937, Volume 2-2: New Spain, Old Spain
1937-1939, Volume 2-3: Without Honour Nor Reason
1939-1940, Volume 2-4: Pride Cometh Before Fall
1940-1941, Volume 2-5: Andalusian Delusions
1941-1942, Volume 2-6: We Fought On Beaches
1942-1943, Volume 2-7: Only Men Endure
1943-1944, Volume 2-8: The Tide Has Turned
1944-1945, Volume 2-9: A Reservation at the Table
1945-1946, Volume 2-10: Liberty, Fraternity, Equality
1946-1947, Volume 2-11: Should Have Stayed An Artist
1947-1948, Volume 2-12: Let the Heavens Fall

Series 3 (all TBD): 1948-1960 Third World War Era
1948-1950, Volume 3-1: The Palestine Question
1950-1952, Volume 3-2: The Chinese Frontier
1952-1953, Volume 3-3: Red On Red
1953-1954, Volume 3-4: Paranoia Kills Competence
1954-1955, Volume 3-5: A Land War In Russia
1955-1956, Volume 3-6: No Remorse

1956-1965, Volume 3-7: On the Immiscibility of Holy War and Counterinsurgency
1965-1977, Volume 3-8: On "Civil Rights" as Cultural Genocide

Not sure how many volumes this bit would actually take, and whether this would constitute a series would affect numbering of later series. Probably "Series 3.5" if it's a separate series...

Series 4 (all TBD): Fourth World War era
1977-1978: Too Much Vodka?
1978-1979: Touring Moscow Again
1979-1980: Psychics Are Real?
1980-1981: You Have Been Warned
1981-1987: Spiritualists In Uproar

Series 5 (TBD): Fifth World War era
1987-1992: A Poisoned Gift
1992-1993: The Reds Menaced
1993-1994: National Seppuku, Again
1994-1995: Northern Court
1995-1997: What Have We Done?*
1997-2000: Salvaging a New World

*Note: Evangelion in this timeline will be made on the OTL schedule by the OTL author, absolutely horrified and depressed at what the Psychic Disaster at the end of the Fourth World War pushed his country into doing e.g. collective insanity. However, during this same phase of the war, Russian resistance movements are throwing back the occupiers after ruinous EU occupation policies. Basically this was once the stuff of Red Alert 3: Uprising, now put through a whole lot of revisions even after I filed off the serial numbers.

Series 6 (TBD): Sixth World War era
2000-2003: A Distraction is Needed
2003-2004: Preparing for Revanche
2004-2005: The End of History
2005-2006: Manifest Destiny
2006-2007: The Mountains and Rivers Are Still There
2007-2008: The Big Three In Accord

Series 7 (TBD): First Dust War era
2008-2009: Material Men
2009-2010: War for the Status Quo
2010-2011:
2011-2012:

Series 8 (TBD): Long Night of Solace Era
2012-2017: The World Turns
2017-2019: The Watchers on the Wall
2019-2021: The Beautiful Ones
2021-2023: Bellum Infinitus
2023-2025: This War of Ours
2025-2027: By Candlelight Defiance
2027-2029: Take What Cheer You May

Series 9 (TBD): Second Dust War era
2029-2030: Atlas Shrugs
2030-2031: You Can't Kill the Messiah
2031-2032: You Are Not Alone
2032-2033: Artificial Stupidity
2033-2034: We Did End the Fire
2034-2035: Revoke the Privilegia
2035-2036: Renovatio Imperii

Series 10 (TBD): Third Dust War era

Series 11 (TBD): Fourth Dust War era

Series 12 (TBD): Interplanetary War

Series 13 (TBD): Exodus Era

Possibly some Interstellar Wars depending on when I feel humanity has the numbers and tech to handle ancient mistakes.

Series 14? (TBD): Four Horsemen War Era (totally not Reapers, no sir)

Series 15? (TBD): Iron Maiden War Era

Before anyone asks, this is a guy who looks similar to Walker:

Spoiler: The name is a lie. So is the other name he is known to most of mankind by

This post will be updated over time as new volumes are released or new names are penciled in.

EDIT: I've done some math and am pleased to announce that while the Soviet Union will still become the largest singular nation even in this TL (est. 23.3 million km^2, OTL 24.4), Canada will become a significantly larger nation (approx. 18.15 million km^2) than in-TL Russia (16 million km^2) and even OTL Russia (17.1 million km^2) in land area after the USSR is dismantled. However, like Russia it suffers greatly from Arctic conditions (in comparison, the third place, China (disputed OTL, definitely 3rd TTL), suffers arid terrain and the Tibetan plateau).

Counting what others label as "client states" though SI by 2000 AD (225 years after the empire-building starts, a long time...) would handily out-land the whole (by then dismantled) Warsaw Pact by my estimation... let's see, (in order of acquisition)... Mexico (humanitarian intervention in 1910s transitioning to puppeting), maybe Nicaragua (if they get mad over the Mosquito Coast, which remained British and is about 40% of OTL Nicaragua), Spain, North Japan, North Korea, Palestine (complete with having to deal with the Israel Liberation Organization "activists" as the US calls them ITL), possibly Cameroon or Nigeria, possibly Algeria, and later possibly Cambodia and Burma by aggressive interventions... hmm, might have to trim down the list a bit to make World War Six an almost impossible slog against the United States and their lackeys allies... very well, then, with a Greater Canada we don't need so many client states.

 

[Guardian54]

Disclaimers:


Historical facts may prove gravely disturbing, even outside times of war. Reader discretion is advised.

Please remember that the lectures and discussions depicted are partially reconstructed from records, and partly from asking Ellen Shepard (still alive through means unknown at the present time). They will not always be an exact transcript, but we will try to keep anachronisms out as able. Please forward detected anachronisms to the SI Publishing Bureau for review and revision into the next Edition.

Spacing may (unfortunately) vary depending on medium of publication.



Author's Foreword:


Please note that Archives Series 0 was (in-universe) published decades after Series 1, 2, 3, etc. and cover a timespan when the Europeans were not paying much attention to Shepard Implements/Industries/Initiative (renamed over time) actions. There are lots of things that need to be explained and some anachronistic references by the storytellers of later events as a result of the in-setting publication history.



Suggested Back Cover Text:


"I assure you I had rather be the first man here than the second man in Rome." -Julius Caesar, passing a small village in the Alps-

Born just before the formal end of the Seven Years' War, Ellen Smith would have been just another woman who foundered in society due to excessive ambition were it not for her teacher. "Walker" was an old family friend, who for his own unknown reasons taught her all that led to the Red Maple Leaf on White, the precursor to the Red Maple with Bars banner that the world knows today. But that was not enough, for in an established society such as Philadelphia, constraints were many and often overrode practicality. Only the distant frontier lands of the recently conquered Province of Quebec could allow her the freedom to amass power.

Growing sentiments of rebellion in the Thirteen Colonies brought Ellen's plans forward and rather enhanced them, though it also forced her north of the Great Lakes. Very well, there was never a right time, there was always a wrong time, there was never enough preparation, and there was now. It was the time for a girl to stand up and become a woman, for that woman to show the world what she was capable of. She was far too foolish to do otherwise, to grasp the concept that as a woman of her era such ambitions were absurd, and her over-indulgent family had let her run far too wild. With Walker's aid, despite his dubious and unknown motivations, Ellen Smith would carve out her own destiny.

It would be after she'd chosen a new name, that Ellen would realize the great irony of her life. The First Farmer had, by then, cultivated the First Shepard, though that name was a deception, much as the name of the First Farmer was.



Archivists' Preface:


The Shepard family name began with Ellen Smith during the American Revolutionary War. A common rumour associated it with doing the equivalent of herding thousands of… uh… sheep was too polite. Some sort of cat would be more accurate to their obstinacy… she had to herd them for decades to cobble together a country under her influence. The family has since shrugged off others speculating on and analyzing their motivations and actions before the Mexican Intervention and the First World War, for which there had been no Archives published. No longer! Series Zero of the Archives will examine the hundred and fifty-some years that preceded the Red Maple Leaf with Bars thundering into history books worldwide. You will be shown where we began, when the banner of the Red Maple Leaf on White first flew, and what it takes to forge a superpower from nothing.

We at SI Publication Bureau write this archive now because the time has come for the world to learn clearly the story of an upstart girl too ignorant to know carving out an empire from blank wilderness was a task too great for any one man or even group of men, too stupid to understand that she was not a man and therefore could not even think to attempt such a thing. More importantly, the time has come and the world has matured enough and calmed enough to incorporate new revelations, and to acknowledge The Ancestor.

 

[Guardian54]

Act 1: Walking the World No Longer


Chapter 1-1: Magic Need Not Apply


So, you have come to hear the tale of the Red Maple Leaf with Bars? Better have a day set aside, maybe three. You see, it is a great tale…

Ellen Smith was a woman of great appetites, great ambitions, and great… insanity, by the standards of her time. But the question, the question you want to know, is… was that enough? Was the ambition of one girl enough to forge a Great Power?

For there was no serious union of British North America in those days, just a bunch of squabbling colonies trying to throttle each other's growth. But Ellen was taught that she had to control territory to have some say over her own destiny, and if dominating enough territory required a flight to the chilly hinterlands of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence, well, so be it. (Note 1)


XX


Ahem, drama and references aside, for the question itself, since we are here talking about this, you know the answer is… not quite. No, Ellen was ultimately not a self-made woman, she acknowledged this well enough in her memoirs and writings. In fact, without her teacher's resources, connections, lessons and encouragement, she would never have been able to claw her way out of what was expected of a woman in her day.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1763 to a rather wealthy family, she was seven when she formally entered the tutelage of the mysterious family friend, "Walker", who her grandfather had met in late 1735. Grandfather Jeremy Smith often joked in private about how Walker might have only showed himself after accusations of witchcraft were made illegal, for Grandfather could remember no changes of Walker's appearance after thirty-five years of knowing the charismatic, alarmingly knowledgeable and eerily persuasive man.

The main reason Jeremy didn't distance himself from the extremely suspicious man once he noticed the issue was Walker saving his wife a few years into their acquaintance. Jeremy recorded that his wife's symptoms resembled typhoid at first, but then grew worse perhaps due to dysentery, a mix that was certain death in those times. In desperation, Jeremy accepted Walker's claim that he could cure her if Jeremy would agree to giving him two days alone with her. Due to the obligatory suspicion of the time, as a child was certainly the mother's but might not be the father's, Jeremy kept his distance from his healed wife for several months, only relaxing after it was obvious that no untoward consequences could be on the way.

It was during this timeframe of working out how Walker had worked such a miracle that Jeremy realized his household had a suspicious lack of infant mortality since the man was first introduced to his wife and children. He was not stupid enough to look a gift horse (or miracle) in the mouth, so he remained friends with Walker despite his doubts. One day in 1740, Jeremy grumbled to Walker about his third daughter Emily, then seven years old, being overly inquisitive, tinkering, bookish and behaving painfully unfeminine. Walker suggested that Emily be apprenticed to him as a student, but Jeremy was too wary to accept, something he would spend his twilight years lamenting.

Twenty-three years later, Emily Smith and her husband John Smith (unrelated within known records) had their third child and second daughter, one Ellen Smith. Walker had been offered the godfather role when they'd had their first child (a daughter), but he had declined the proposition as inappropriate and so it had not been offered again for the later children. Jeremy could not understand this act, as he was clearly seeking a good female student with enough ambition. Emily had clearly been the first to catch his eye after Walker had come onto the Philadelphia social scene as a mysterious rich man, and from his behaviour he had found no real equal since then. Walker had remained a close family friend, almost certainly looking for whether there would be more daughters of similar calibre from that line.

Almost everyone was surprised by Emily's new husband formally authorizing her to act without his direct approval in the business scene of Philadelphia. When Ellen started showing the same traits as her mother, traits then and in more foolish places even today considered undesirable and not to be encouraged in a daughter, Walker asked her parents about potentially becoming her tutor. This was eagerly approved by the parents, but there had to be a small admission test, even as a formality.


XX


Philadelphia, 1770


She tapped his sleeve twice, then waited for him to look at her. "Yes, Ellen?"

"Uncle Walker, why were we invited to this party for…" Ellen gestured broadly "young ladies of marriageable age?"

"Just so that you can observe them."

Ellen grimaced at that "You're the mysterious rich unmarried older gentleman who many of their parents probably warned them about, because you've been here for thirty-five years and still seem to have the same health and vitality as ever. Most of them are gossiping with each other about you deciding to host such a party for once and want to see if you might finally be seeking a bride."

Walker tilted his head back slightly as he laughed, before smiling down at her "Methinks you are the only young lady here who finds me more suspicious than dazzling."

She took a moment to, in theory, ensure she did not accidentally confess to impoliteness someone else was being accused of by looking over her shoulders theatrically as if he could be talking to someone behind her. In practice, he was close enough to the family that noting some of his eccentricities was more endearing and observational than insulting. She grinned back. "Merely sensible caution."

"Do you know why Jewishness is matrilineal?" Walker asked seemingly out of the blue.

"No sir, please explain." Ellen said. Sometimes Walker distributed random nuggets of knowledge, often things that it seemed no one else knew.

"The Jews were not particularly early adopters of agriculture, in fact they remained against it for some time as seen by the story of Cain and Abel. In the days of tribal living, by far the most precious resource was women. Men were sent on risky tasks such as meeting strangers, who were automatically suspicious due to not being blood-related as part of the tribe, and of course to war. A civilization can continue functioning while losing half its adult males every generation to war. It would be difficult, yes, but men can substitute for other men with little risk, while a woman giving birth twice as often would often be impossible or very quickly fatal. No civilization could sustain high losses of women, and so they were highly valued and men given the dangerous tasks."

He looked at Ellen's father, who smiled and inclined his head "Once stockpiling of resources due to agriculture began, men who had over generations been bred for the strength to win fights came to controlled the methods of production. Once that occurred, their success was measured in the number of women they could support… but there is a problem. A man can never be completely sure the offspring is his unless he prevents all other males from encountering the woman when she is fertile, but a woman's offspring are always her own. That basic fact of life, one that most have long forgotten, is why the Jews are matrilineal, and why men have sought control. Married women in Quebec for example are considered mentally invalid in the eyes of the law and even here in Pennsylvania wives do not have the right to retain their own wages, as per British Common Law, as compared to Spanish Common Law where wives could own property. Take a while to think about what I mean by telling you this."

And lo, Ellen did think on what Walker said to her. He moved away to exchange pleasantries with the young ladies, and her parents tailed her around the ballroom… why? Why did her parents tell her to wander freely, and then follow her around this evening, instead of the normal standard of children being brought around by their parents to greet their peers? Yes, sometimes they just left her or siblings with Uncle Walker for some time to be supervised by him and pick up some of his wisdom, but none of her siblings were here this evening. The event had to have something specifically to do with her. Showing her what young ladies looked and acted like? No, with how Walker had wanted her mother to be his student many years ago, he wanted to teach a girl who was exceedingly unfeminine… Ah, perhaps it was that? But why would he show her so many examples of how these ladies behaved…

Ellen listened to the chattering from one group, then another. She considered how much the subjects these women discussed created compared to listening to her mother do business, seeing the products leave and money come in. Few women could possibly replace her mother in her work, while any typical married woman of similar stature and upbringing would not be very different from any other such typical woman.

Walker's intent seemed clear. And if he was baiting her into such an arrogant assumption, so be it. Uncle Walker always taught something, even via mistakes. If she never took risks she'd never be anything, like how her mother had taken huge risks and was now much less of a seeming decoration at home than most women. As you can tell, Ellen at that age had NO understanding of how much work housekeeping was… and still is today.

Ellen gained Walker's attention by standing nearby silently after he finished speaking to another gentleman, then suggested "May my parents and I speak with you in more privacy, sir?"

"Certainly! John, Emily, Ellen, my study is this way." He smiled as he led them out of the great hall of his home… to a few curious looks and frowns.

As they left the ballroom, Ellen caught some lady saying to another "This isn't Delaware…" and another hushed voice of "…contract with someone so young?" for some reason (Note 2). Her parents and Walker alike seemed to be rather amused by the gossip.

"Interesting" Ellen said as they passed a low bookshelf in the austere hallway. Walker had previously hosted them on visits she could remember in the library or ballroom, which did not require going upstairs or into this wing of the house at all.

"She's been reading too many mystery stories." her mother explained.

Walker looked at John Smith for a moment, who shrugged "I know not what they refer to specifically, but I suspect it has to do with the bookshelf, and I do know my wife passed a lot of her observational skills on to Ellen."

"I moved most of the decorations to the main hall for tonight's social event. My home usually has far sparser decorations, as seen by the dust-free circle from the Chinese vase that usually sat on that shelf." He opened the door to his study and motioned the family toward the couch, while himself turning the seat in front of his desk around before seating himself, saying "Ellen has understood why I am holding these social gatherings with families of modest wealth with young daughters."

"You do not seek a potential bride. You seek a student. You did not intend on choosing any of them, not today and not for the past few years at least. You invited us so that I could see how they behaved and hear their words. You invited us to show me how your guidance has affected my parents and I. You want me." She said boldly, perhaps brashly.

The gentleman chuckled for a reason Ellen did not know. It didn't seem quite right for approval, the sound seemed to have a tad too much amusement… "Bold words, without the fritters and fluff of what adults claim to be 'civilized', but yes, I do seek a student. And yes, I am asking you in particular to be that student."

"Grandfather did sometimes grumble that perhaps Mother's business efforts would have done better if he'd just let you have her… and Mother and Father are obviously in agreement already… why did you…" The reason for asking her became quickly obvious as she spoke her way through the words and abruptly trailed off. If Walker encouraged her mother to be so independent, possibly by having leverage on her father, and liked such ambition, then he would very likely prefer his students to learn from him of their own choice, not merely the choice of their parents. "I agree."

Walker clapped his hands together with a grin. "Excellent! You'll need to work on the reasoning out loud just like I worked it out with your mother later on, but as you're still young we shouldn't be worried about Exposition Syndrome."

Emily snorted at that, without explanation, for Ellen could figure it out herself. Without Exposition Syndrome, Emily would probably have been too quiet and seemingly demure to draw Walker's attention. After all, a quietly dormant volcano was generally treated by wildlife and humans alike as just another mountain, while a regularly fuming volcano was more respected, at least by those only looking for the immediate signs as a cursory scan was wont to do.


XX


Archivists' Notes, Chapter 1:

1. A reference to a certain Barbarossa campaign in a certain video game set in the middle ages to early Renaissance, a campaign where you play as the Teutons.

2. The concept of the Age of Consent in written form was first set in 1275 in England at 12, the minimum age of marriageability at the time, and then in 1576 it was made a felony to "unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any woman child under the age of 10 years" which was generally interpreted to NOT be a lowering of the age of consent, but a more severe punishment for child molesters. However, it was treated as setting the age of consent at 10 in the colonies for quite some time. North American colonial era ages of consent were generally set from 10 to 12, while Delaware's age of consent remained 7 until the 1960s. Though records of that law in Delaware extend only to the late 19th century, it is at least strongly suspected to have nasty precedents from earlier. Technically comments like these in the 1770s by Pennsylvanians COULD be from inter-colonial bias, but we doubt it.

 

[Guardian54]

Chapter 1-2: Four Words


Walker's manse was a curious structure, befitting the eccentric and mysterious gentleman he generally seemed to be… unless in the company of close friends in which case he was far too jolly for propriety. His roof tiles were rather pale in colour, perhaps the standard white paint of the day (lead white) darkened by exposure and dust, or perhaps by using light-coloured clay to make the tiles. The three main floors of the home had rather notably protruding, sloped overhangs built over the windows, stepped in such a way that the south, west and east sides of the home vaguely resembled a child's rendition of a pine tree or perhaps a poorly imitated pagoda. The windows of the attic, which protruded from the roof (Ellen would later learn, and forget, that these were called dormers) lacked such overhangs, and exclusively faced east for whatever reason.

If one were to be rude on purpose, the house might be called a bright eyesore in the summer (though it was far less than the glare of pale limestone or marble) with all the pale tiling on every side but the north, and Walker like to joke that only the relatively darker bricks and the windows prevented it from being a navigational hazard in winter. However due to being cool and well-shaded by design, despite looking… eccentric and externally undecorated… the occasional parties he hosted (as wealthy gentleman were obligated to) in summer tended to be very popular affairs.

The library was in the eastern wing of the ground floor, with the ballroom dominating said floor, and a kitchen with a small dining room to the west of that. The small classroom Walker guided Ellen and Emily to was set up on the western end of the floor above, with a stairwell directly adjacent.

The first lesson, the morning after Ellen's agreement to be Walker's student, started with bewildering nonsense (Note 1). If there were two student desks, one behind the other, why did she have to sit directly next to the window at the front desk? With how the other desk was void of occupants, and how Walker spoke of taking the long view on things, which presumably meant he'd be writing on the whole blackboard, she would have preferred the center seat of the front table to be able to see the other side of the board at less of an angle. It would also make her note papers less potentially annoyingly bright in the afternoons as the students faced north and the window opened westward. Yes, the shading of the windows by design would help, but if she was in the middle column the sun wouldn't shine on her paper until the very end of the day, assuming class was not dismissed before then. Well, at least they weren't doing these classes in the library. Getting sun glare off paper in the early morning would be far more irritating.

Walker sat at the front desk, and Ellen's chaperone, an older female relative (each chaperone in the arranged rotation would be paid for their time), sat behind her. Today, it was her mother as Mr. Walker had insisted for the first lesson. "Do you know when the Orkneys and Shetlands became part of Scotland?" He began.

"No, sir." Ellen said.

"King Christian I of Norway and Denmark had put them up as collateral for a debt to King James III of Scotland. The Danish failure to repay resulted in the Scots seizing the islands in 1472. In those days, England and Scotland were rival powers, and Henry VIII of England received an offer from Christian II of Denmark in 1518. Henry VIII had ascended the throne in 1509 and one of his first acts was to abolish an unpopular and generally ignored statute from 1429 requiring all English subjects buying stockfish from abroad only in Bergen, a western coastal city of Norway roughly where it comes closest to England. Stockfish is unsalted fish dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (referred to as stocks), an essential food product in those times and even today." Since Ellen had been taught too read quite early, had plenty of access to books (including Walker's collection), and not many toys, she had a large vocabulary and could work many words out by context. However, some technical terms still needed explaining.

"The English presence around Iceland was huge then. In records from 1528, there were 440 registered fishing vessels in England, and 149 of them sailed to Iceland to fish, over a third! With how Scotland had recently expanded northward" Walker emphasized the Orkneys and Shetlands "and how large the English presence already was around Iceland, Christian II sensed an opportunity following the Scottish defeat at Flodden on September 9, 1513, one which should naturally bring a desire for revenge. He sent a secret envoy to Henry VIII in 1518, secretly asking for a loan of 100,000 florins, with instructions to accept down to 50,000 florins if need be, with Iceland as collateral. Henry was uninterested at the time in strategically outflanking Scotland due to still recovering a treasury buffer after the financial drain of his 1513 campaign in France during the War of the League of Cambrai. Christian II tried again in 1524 after he was deposed, but because of the Icelanders executing Governor Tyle Petersen in 1523 as a spurning of the deposed king and of the idea of a handover to England, Henry VIII angrily rejected acquiring Iceland even as collateral for a loan. Despite being paid off by Charles V, then Holy Roman Emperor for the Italian War of 1521-26, also known as the Four Years' War, Henry still had the treasury to consider too."

Ellen raised her eyebrows at the rather detailed globe Walker was pointing to, which had Greenland and Iceland in British colours. Walker smirked at what might as well have amounted to "get to the point" in juvenile behaviour.

"Then in 1535, Christian III offered to pawn Iceland off again. While at this time Henry VIII was busy plotting the death of his second queen Anne Boleyn for not being submissive enough and too intellectual for his pride—and let that be a lesson on the dangers of marrying men with power—he did notice the Scots had recovered form their defeat 22 years ago. If he wished to embark on further French campaigns, he would need to neutralize Scotland first. Ireland had recently had the Silken Thomas Rebellion, when Thomas FitzGerald, 10th Earl of Kildare managed to raise much of Ireland in revolt. The 9th Earl had been summoned to London and promptly thrown into the Tower of London in February, and the then 21-year-old Thomas heard rumours in June that his father had been killed, and the same awaited him and his uncles. He was proven right later, but only in 1537, four years after the revolt ended with his surrender, and after Henry's death. This self-fulfilling prophecy of a revolt made Henry look northwest rather more than he did before, caused the establishment of the Royal Irish Army as a standing army, and made him fretful that Ireland would be supported by Scotland in another rebellion."

"There was also the colonial game to consider. Henry had reports of the French launching an expedition to seek a western route to China in 1523 and perhaps create colonies in the New World. By this point, Henry VIII had begun to regret not taking the first offer for a more westerly launch point for expeditions to the New World and perhaps to China. Since John Cabot had already discovered Newfoundland in 1497, establishing a colony there would be ideal, but a voyage with shorter legs seemed appealing. After all, before Columbus all known attempts to cross the Atlantic to find land (save for perhaps a few Norse, Celtic and other sagas Henry was unaware of) had failed due to the sheer distances involved. If there were provisioning and repair stations along the route then the voyage would be far safer, the risks of scurvy among prospective colonists far lower, and colonies would be able to grow faster." He lectured, pointing out the relevant shipping routes.

"And thus, England acquired Iceland and the Faroes. Since Iceland was not particularly productive save for useful sulfur mines, they were given a lot of autonomy, the ability to make many of their own minor decisions. The Faroes were treated similarly, though assimilation happened in both areas over time as ambitious locals left to or returned from England. The next logical objective was to claim Greenland, then already known to Europeans. Obviously, there were some problems with Henry's idea, such as John Cabot's voyage taking only about 33 days to reach North America and scurvy generally only appearing after a month at sea. However, delays from the wind conditions were quite normal in those times and still are, and shorter distances are much easier to navigate, especially with plenty of fishermen wandering about, to direct lost ships if need be. The westerlies were also not so strong at the latitudes of Iceland and Greenland, certainly not the near-suicidal journey that the Mayflower performed straight into the prevailing winds at the latitudes where the winds were strongest. Henry was upset when exploration of Greenland showed its coast to be difficult to navigate, with lots of drifting and dangerous sea ice (Note 2). It was less than suitable for building the supporting settlements he had been convinced were a good idea, but he claimed all of Greenland nonetheless and set up a stopover settlement there, albeit a minor one. These lands he'd bought seemed good for whaling and fishing, but not much else at the time."

Walker put his large globe, which Ellen thought remarkably detailed, down and folded his fingers together. "So, Miss Smith, what was the value of this story? Take your time."

A few minutes of Walker idly tracing the northern route, from England to Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and finally New England or Quebec, passed before Ellen could answer. After all, he could not possibly be saying that grabbing useless land no one else wanted was pointless, since he said they were of some minor use at least. No matter how minor the use, you could always do something… if you chose to do anything. "For the story itself, all land claimed by a country can be made useful somehow, providing more materials and manpower to the country in one way or another… But only if it is used at all!"

"And besides the story itself?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You have a remarkably detailed… and precise… globe, Mr. Walker." In fact, it seemed to show a southern polar continent in what should have been unexplored lands…

Walker smiled. "Do you know why I asked for your mother to accompany you today, Miss Smith?"

"Please explain, sir." Uncle Walker, or Mr. Walker whenever he decided to use formal words, had long since taught her to let people talk and spew facts.

"I have been known to your family from long before you were born, from before your mother could remember. I had in fact originally intended on raising your mother as my disciple, for you inherited most of your intelligence from her, but your grandfather was too suspicious of me… and it turned out introducing her to one of my subordinates was not the best idea I ever had for convincing her to spend some more years learning from me."

Ellen looked back at her mother, who had flushed rather red at the stern disapproving look Mr. Walker was giving her. Mr. Walker did not seem so old that he could have taught her mother, but Ellen kept her mouth shut. It was very interesting to see her mother act like a guilty child though with her grumbled statement of "It's not as if I didn't work on a base of capital as you taught me…"

Walker sighed "I didn't teach you early enough, such that I actually had to make sure you met a reasonable match who would let your 'frivolities' slide."

"You mean that I got married at all in a land with English Common Law." Emily said.

"Something I regret never prying around to be more like the Spanish, where married women can own property, yes." The corners of Walker's mouth twitched upward for a moment. Ellen was not quite sure what she was supposed to be learning from this exchange, though in hindsight it was obvious enough.

Then he turned toward her again. "So, Ellen, the first lesson of today is about the foundation of all power, control over territory. In the present and since time immemorial it has been generally control over land, or interactions of water and land such as the blockade of coasts, the prevention of goods being moved from port to port. But in the future as navigation technology advances, lines shall be ever more commonly drawn at sea for the rights to harvest the oceans' bounty. Even today there are some such agreements, such as the fishing rights guaranteed to the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon south of Newfoundland." The globe was, predictably, used to identify said islands "Though Henry the Eighth had to be navigated into the choice by advisors, seizing Iceland, the Faroes, and Greenland should be recognized as his greatest achievement as a monarch. Now, what is a big problem with having territory?"

Ellen thought about claiming ownership of a huge, barren, icy plain and trying to make some money off of it. Unless they dug up gold or silver or something else useful, or got enough fish from surrounding seas… ah, but taxes needed to be collected too. "Territory needs to be governed?" Ah, that head-tilt meant he wanted more… more like what she said earlier. "And used?"

"Yes. So, how can you use it?"

"By putting people to work there, mining, farming and making things… or near there, for fishing fleets."

Walker tilted his head slightly to the side "Is that enough? What if they can only do so much and the area cannot support more people?"

How could she get more from of the land or water? "The people can become faster or better at what they do, so each person can do more or better work."

"How?"

"Better training and tools…" gunpowder for blasting made tunnelling much easier than in the past… but it was still quite difficult to work in the dark, so good lighting would be nice… that was true for factories too… oh, and safety too, a coal mine catching fire would be bad… "better, safer work environment…" slaves and paid workers alike tended to do the minimum that wouldn't get them in trouble, so… "better results checking… oh, and happier, loyal workers!" The growing smile said she was on the right track.

Right, that was one of the most controversial things about her family. Mother actually paid the blacks working for her at market labour wage rates, even though they were legally slaves. According to Grandfather, very few had ever run away even before Mother's eccentricity started in the assets (slaves, land, and some other properties) Grandfather had given her to manage. He the patriarch of the family disapproved of floggings for health reasons (slaves growing ill or weakened by whipping were expensive!), raised his sons to be similarly less violent than normal, and had found like-minded men for his daughters. Runaways, if recaptured, were simply sold by the catchers to less over-generous owners, which kept the slaves generally in line. After Emily changed it up further, productivity rose steeply, though her lands (legally controlled by her husband in theory, but much was from her dowry and she ruled the household, including business ventures) were unfortunately constrained from growth after that.

Not too many people wanted to potentially seem supportive of this level of "eccentricity" (if she wasn't wealthy enough the term would be "derangement") and thus buying more land was difficult for Emily's branch of the family now, due to this self-inflicted wound. Thus, the number of slaves she could employ was relatively limited. Making that known to the workers resulted in some competition in output and quality of production between the workers. It seemed the slaves didn't want to risk being sold off to less insane masters if their productivity fell below nebulous quotas Emily had hinted at.

Being let go as free men and risking slave catchers passing them off as escapees was one thing, and many would be fine with that in exchange for freedom. The more important problem was that no one else would hire blacks for anything like the wage rates she paid them, and she granted enough liberty that working elsewhere as a free black seemed to mean longer hours of harder work without legal support. These were things the slaves learnt by observations during the free time Emily granted pretty much specifically for that purpose. She wanted them to know that her patronage was better than the alternatives available to blacks, even free blacks, in this day and age. That could change, but then the family would adapt to deal with their freed workers without too much change in general principles of handling morale.

Yes, the Smith, later Shepard, family owned slaves, hundreds of them! But don't forget that George Washington had over 300 slaves living on his properties by the time he died, and many of the other Founding Fathers of the United States also owned slaves. Owning slaves was not so common in the North, and these were generally domestic servants or artisans, but there were still quite a number owned.

The Smith family used their slaves as a captive audience to try to ensure a core group of settlers willing to follow the family's leadership if they should ever venture out into the frontier. At the time, there were grumblings over taxation after the Seven Years' War, which meant a need for planning to possibly escape unrest via Canada… or rather the "Province of Quebec" as it was officially known at this time. Dominating the frontier to get their way through economic means was the long-term plan Emily had been convinced of by Walker, as the social scene in Philadelphia was getting somewhat crowded with those that shunned their oddities. These same oddities would result in some later abjectly false myths in the United States about how slavery was "not so bad", and in time made for yet another self-inflicted stumbling block. No, a more accurate comparison would be to wage slavery, and even that lacked the cultivation of rational loyalty that was a lynchpin of the family's employment model.

"I see you are thinking about how paying workers well compared to what they can expect from others, with threat of loss of said jobs, creates incentive for higher performance than the absolute minimum required, at least in those who would otherwise be treated as slaves, and logically also in free men. Good, that and the other things you thought of are good ways to improve productivity." Walker observed. "And what about before we get that territory? What did Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and others do that was so valuable?"

Those were great explorers, which meant… "We have to find the territory?"

"Indeed, and what happens when others compete for that territory? What is a notable consequence of the Anglo-Spanish and Anglo-French Wars in the Caribbean?" Most of the smaller islands were in British colours on the globe Mr. Walker was pointing at…

"Push them aside, by trading something for the territory, maybe money, other territory, or favours… or by going to war?" One does not simply be born in British North America right after the Seven Years' War ended without learning about it as a child.

Walker clapped his hands together "Exactly! The means by which Wealth and Power are amassed, and even wars fought, can be summarized by four words starting with E-X, the principles of which you must learn, before you begin putting knowledge into action." He exaggeratedly loomed over Ellen in that moment, perhaps not the most befitting of a teacher's dignity but certainly useful for making an impression on a student. "The four words are, in this exact order: Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate."


XX


Archivists' Notes, Chapter 2:

1. This probably has nothing to do with the most common classroom seat for protagonists (especially "magical girls") in media of the late 20th century, second row from the back, usually the left-most column by a window (possibly an interior window into a hall if it's the right-most row instead). We claim this is probable because that seat has been used for the main subject of art of classrooms seen from the outside (or inside gazing out the window, whether in thought or to spot something of relevance) since time immemorial to save painters effort. This position usually has a window to its left as it allows a pen, stylus, quill, etc. to be drawn in easily recognizable profile in the framed view through the window, as most people are right-handed.

2. The term "iceberg" was first recorded in English from 1774, borrowed from the Dutch word. Thus the reconstruction of terms used in this lesson does not include "iceberg".

 

[Miner249er]

glad to see this back again.

 

[Guardian54]

Updated the OP slightly with some calculations I did, and some important terms for discussion purposes. I also realized the list of prospective Client States (or close friends that the US thinks of as SI clients like Mexico) were acceptable for early drafts of the Archives where it was OTL Canada's borders, but properly steered from 1535 yields a Canada larger than Russia, so balance of power would be a very serious problem with all those Client States... I should probably trim off Algeria at least.

The lack of commentary is somewhat disappointing, but I suppose this will need over 100K words before people start seriously reading and discussing as well as pointing out serious plot holes.

 

[Miner249er]

The lack of commentary is somewhat disappointing, but I suppose this will need over 100K words before people start seriously reading and discussing as well as pointing out serious plot holes.

Click to shrink...

hopefully someone will

 

[Rui]

Great that this is back.
Great that Iceland and Greenland plus some islands are British now, I've always believed that they should have been British just to make sense in a map.

 

[Guardian54]

A/N: I know exposition chapters suck, but I, the writer, kind of need to generally nail these things down in-story to be able to keep track of all the divergences… and there are MANY minor and major alike from OTL thanks to Icelandic sailors, sulfur, etc.

XX

Chapter 1-3: Ships That Pass in the Night


Philadelphia, 1770


If Walker had continued teaching Ellen the ways of effective, enlightened exploitation, like he had taught her mother at some point, that would have been very interesting and entertaining for almost any ambitious child (Note 1). Instead, he insisted on studying history first, or, as he put it, exploring the past to better understand the present. For obvious reasons of proximity, Walker focused mostly on New World developments, namely the slow advance of British interests in the Caribbean over the course of the many Anglo-Spanish, Anglo-Dutch and Anglo-French wars. However, he was for some reason rather detailed in the impact of acquiring Iceland and the Faroes in his brief overview of historical events. He would go into more detail later on in Ellen's education, but the broad strokes he conveyed to her were perhaps more important in her formative lessons and years.

"The Italian War of 1542-46 was inconclusive, lacking decisive victories for either side and breaking the English and Holy Roman Empire alliance's ability to fight by dragging the war on and exhausting their treasuries, England's war effort suffered from Henry's loan, a de facto purchase, of Iceland and the Faroes, but they managed to hold out long enough for French war exhaustion to end the war in the Treaty of Ardres on June 7, 1546. Forced to face the facts of his treasury, Henry VIII obeyed the terms of the Treaty and did not continue the Anglo-Scottish War of 1543, known to us as the Rough Wooing. It would be eighteen months later, after Henry's death, that the regent of young Edward VI had to counter the Scottish regent's attack on the fort at Langholm that the English still held on traditionally Scottish land. Henry had demanded a small coastal stretch from the traditional border to the fort as part of the Treaty of Ardres, and the Scots had evidently agreed because they'd decided it was just for a breather to reorganize before taking the land back. Perhaps he was hoping the Scots would try to take it back in half a decade or more when the treasury would have recovered enough to defeat them handily? Eventually, England was forced to give up land it held in Scotland by the French landing in Scotland. And thus, the war known as the Rough Wooing due to Henry's desire to unite the crowns with a marriage for his son ended, with England forced back to its starting positions." Walker paused, then frowned at the fact that his student merely paused in her note-taking, as if waiting for him to continue "Ellen!"

She looked up abruptly "Yes sir?"

"You should ask more questions. To make you understand this better, I need to be speaking with you, not just speaking to you. It is one thing when trying to teach a large number of students at once, it is wholly another with a single student." There was much vague hand-gesturing here by Walker as if pointing things out to a class.

"Um…" Given Uncle Walker liked to ask guiding questions, even if it sometimes made you feel foolish afterward, it was very likely that he wanted her to explain what that portion of lecture was meant to teach. Otherwise he wouldn't have paused, perhaps? But he wasn't asking yet, so he wanted her to answer first? "Henry expected the Scots to act like he planned, and they didn't?" Walker nodded and waited a moment longer "Never expect the enemy to do what you want them to, and always make many other plans?"

"Exactly! Now, continuing on, nothing very relevant to us happened during Edward VI's reign, but the reign of Mary I of England saw the first notable volcanic eruption in Iceland after the purchase. In 1554, an eruption southwest of Hekla lasted about six weeks…"

"What is a volcanic eruption?"

Walker realized Ellen probably did not have the background knowledge to understand this, not that an older person would generally know of these things either. "A volcano is a mountain that forms when molten stone spews out from underground, cools, and piles up, generally with one or more channels where the stone is only mostly or even partially cooled. And an eruption is when the molten stone, lava, comes out. Sometimes it is mixed with enough gas, water and steam from underground to create huge plumes of particles, called volcanic ash, but sometimes lava is hot and liquid enough to just flow out like water instead of bursting and popping while it flows, like oatmeal. More liquid lava forms a flatter volcano as it spreads out further before becoming solid, like a thin batter compared to shaping a loaf of bread. In ancient times and even now, many people took these eruptions as Acts of God, when it is in truth more like a pot boiling over or subsiding depending on the amount of heat coming from below. I'll teach you more about how that works later."

He took a sip of water "Mary took this eruption and her false pregnancy as signs of God's anger at tolerance of non-Catholics in the realm. With the English failure in the Italian War of 1551-1559, during which Mary died of illness in 1558, likely weakened by uterine cancer…" Walker stopped suddenly upon realizing his student clearly was just nodding along to the term "Cancer is an uncontrolled growth of flesh that does not do anything useful and by its continuous growth consumes a person's vitality." He returned to the subject at hand with "Mary perhaps might have done better to think the eruption and her false pregnancy, the first making ground barren and the second a failure to bring what she perceived to be new life to the world, as a warning against her zealous removal of lives. What is the lesson from Mary's interpretation of these signs compared to the alternative?"

Walker gave Ellen a while to think, then added "It is more than likely that even if God Himself had shown up in Mary's bedchamber and demanded she stop, but was unwilling to simply smite her, she would have dismissed it as a false vision from the Devil." The kid obviously missed the subtext of I should know, I tried that in working to stop Henry's brat making a mess of the country.

Ellen's eventual conclusion, after some more steering, was "…If you really want to do something, you will believe everything that seems to agree with you and ignore anything that doesn't." Walker's indulgent smile and nodding told her enough as he continued the lecture.

"Yes, people generally see what they wish to see. The Italian War of 1551-1559 ended with the loss of Calais, England's last foothold on Continental Europe, very likely due to Mary's purges causing religion to be prioritized over competence when it came to choosing commanders. The Elizabethan era's first serious conflict was the French Wars of Religion, spanning from 1562 to 1598. Elizabeth, noting the Royal Navy's advantages after Mary recruited many Catholics from the southern coast of Iceland into the Navy after Hekla's 1554 eruption to give them gainful employment, performed some descents along the French coast to evacuate local Huguenots who were willing to leave. This was in addition to the Protestants and Reformed who fled Catholic persecution on their own initiative. Of course, the persecution of Huegenots ended in 1598 until Louis the Fourteenth, who revoked the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and made Protestantism illegal in France, prompting Britain and France to once again become bitter rivals. But that is for later."

"During this time, several other major wars were fought. For example, Sebastian I of Portugal was King of Portugal from 1557 to 1578. He came to the throne at the age of three, and died childless, with no potential male of his dynasty to inherit save his great-uncle Henry, who was a Cardinal. The Pope was under the thumb of the Habsburgs, who then ruled in Austria and in Spain, so acted as the Habsburgs demanded, refusing to release him from his vows. When Henry died in 1580 on his 68th birthday, without appointing a regency council to elect a successor, Philip II of Spain made his move to claim Portugal's throne as first cousin of Sebastian through his mother. This was a stronger claim than Antonio, Prior of Crato, who was the illegitimate child of a son of Manuel I, Sebastian's grandfather, but not the strongest of the potential claimants. So, who do you think is most at fault for the War of the Portuguese Succession?"

Ellen thought for a brief time, before thinking out loud "Uncle Walker, you would not ask this question if the answer was so obvious as blaming Philip II for making the claim to better his own situation and that of his nation. The conclusion you wish for me to arrive at is almost certainly Henry or Sebastian."

"Indeed," Walker's brief smirk ended "Sebastian was twenty-four years old when he died, yet had no heirs, no children. He was fearless in childhood due to his great strength and was raised under the guidance and influence of Jesuits to be extremely devout. Obedient in childhood, he became stubborn and impulsive later in life. He was constantly accompanied by two monks of the Theatine Order whose duty was to preserve his innocence, and as a child he supposedly would react to visitors by running off into hiding with the monks until the visitors had left. He put an end to a plan to marry him to the youngest daughter of the dowager queen of France, claiming the persecution of the Huguenots was too mild and did not impress him, yet later tried to promote the marriage to prevent her from marrying the Huguenot king of Navarre."

"This lesson seems to be about not allowing religion to make my decisions for me."

"Correct. Portugal's traditional ally was England, so to hate Protestants made Sebastian less than diplomatically wise. Though Sebastian achieved some other things in his reign, since 1568 he had dreamed of a great crusade against Morocco, to retake what were thought of as several way stations along the route to India that had been lost in the last generation. These were actually not so important considering the distances involved on other legs of the journey. It is clear that the priests and his piety filled his head with the idea of holy war without consideration of the practical problems such as fighting strength or the future of the realm. He used the opportunity of a Moroccan succession struggle as an excuse to satisfy his zeal and despite his uncle Philip II of Spain refusing his proposal of a crusade in a meeting on Christmas, 1577, he embarked with 17,000 troops in 1578 while lacking an heir. After landing in Morocco, Sebastian took his army and the 6,000 men of his Moroccan ally Abu Abdullah Mohammed II into the interior of that mountainous country against the advice of his commanders. Mohammed's uncle Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik met them with an army of over 60,000 men and crushed them at the Battle of Alcacer Quibir. Sebastian was last seen riding headlong into the enemy lines, but his body was never returned in recognizable form." Walker meshed his fingers together in front of his face and waited.

"I understand, you intend for me to blame Sebastian for rash and zealous behaviour that led to the Portuguese succession being fought over… and perhaps for me to not personally be near a battlefield until after I have heiresses? You would not have spoken to me on how daughters were the only way to be absolutely sure before if you did not intend for my daughters to inherit anything your teachings allow me to create."

"All of those are correct conclusions! The next major war was the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, with the infamous Spanish Armada. The English were supporting Protestants in the Netherlands in their rebellion against Spain, and there were commercial disputes involving many privateers, who attacked enemy trade, basically acting like pirates but with a government legalizing them. There was also the recent War of the Portuguese Succession, and Spanish support for Irish rebels. The Dutch signed the treaty of Nonsuch… yes, yes, I realize the name reads amusingly." Walker grinned at Ellen's giggling. "and the English garrisoned several towns in the Netherlands. Philip took this as a declaration of open war and seized English merchant ships in Spanish harbours, which made Elizabeth and her Privy Council sit up and take notice. You know, since privy is another word for toilet, I suspect the kings who named the council that thought they were permanently full of bodily wastes and generally stank." Apparently, Walker had just remembered that most students who weren't too haughty to admit it liked humour, and for a child…

He took a sip of water as she calmed herself. "In response the English launched a highly successful campaign to kick the Spanish out of the Grand Banks fisheries, directly leading to the formal Colony of Newfoundland being founded. The Royal Navy under Sir Francis Drake sacked Santo Domingo, the main Spanish settlement on Hispaniola, in a surprise attack in January 1586 and managed to occupy it for the duration of the war, sacking Cartagena de Indias in South America the next month and raiding St/ Augustine in Florida afterward." He indicated those places on his globe. "The news was seen as a disaster in Spain and prompted Philip to plan for an invasion of England. The English-Dutch armies suffered some serious defeats on land, but the Dutch continued fighting nonetheless against the Army of Flanders, one of the best armies in the world of that time, led by the famed Alexander Farnese, the Duke of Parma. It seemed that the war would be decided by the Spanish plan to invade England, despite Drake doing serious damage in the West Indies. The additional naval capacity gained from the Iceland purchase allowed the West Indies to be raided repeatedly from Santo Domingo and allowed. By the end of the war, Spain's merchant fleets would be rather badly damaged."

"Elizabeth was forced by the circumstances of religious war to put Mary, Queen of Scots to death in February, 1587, outraging Catholics all over Europe. In April, Drake's fleet raided Cadiz, sinking or capturing over 40 ships, and attacked other ports all over the Portuguese and Spanish coasts, totally over 100 ships sunk, burned or captured. This postponed the invasion for over a year, enough time for Philip to get Papal authority to replace Elizabeth with whoever he wanted, and to collect crusade taxes. Pope Sixtus V also promised a payout to Philip if the Spanish reached England. All in all the Armada began to set sail from Lisbon on 28 May, 1588, with 130 ships, 8,000 sailors, 18,000 soldiers, 1,500 brass guns and 1,000 iron guns, taking two days to leave port. There were 28 heavy ships built as warships, counting twenty galleons, large sailing warships, four galleys, powered mainly by oars in battle, and four galleasses, larger and heavier-armed galleys. There were thirty-four light ships in the fleet, and the remaining sixty-eight were armed carracks or equivalent heavy ships. To oppose them, the English fleet mustered 201 ships, with 38 ships of the Royal Fleet counting 25 galleons, and 163 others, only 30 of which were of 200 to 400 tons carrying up to 42 guns each, equivalent to the galleons. Though outnumbered, the Spanish had half again, meaning a total of one and a half times, the English firepower, but they lacked enough crews to fire all their guns at their full potential rate of fire."

Walker started drawing the approximate coasts on the board. "The prevailing winds in the Channel are southwest to northwest at a brisk fifteen knots, with occasions where easterlies would blow, often for several days at a time. The main objective of the English navy was to hope for the prevailing winds to hold and then prevent the capture of any harbour in southern England while waiting for the wind to push the Spanish out beyond Calais. The surface currents in the eastern part of the Channel run generally from west to east, and with how shallow the channel is, that water has to pour into the North Sea, instead of just sinking down and circling back lower down in the water column. The Spanish plan was to send the 30,000 soldiers of the Army of Flanders on unarmed barges to a place near London, escorted by the fleet." He paused as he finished sketching and labelling the currents (and winds), inviting her to comment.

"But that's against the wind and the current! Would they just… row these barges?" Ellen would have had to be quite stupid to not notice Walker baiting her toward noting that problem. Then again, with her fixation on making her own decisions, she was "quite stupid" for a girl of her time anyhow (Note 2).

"That was one of the great failures of the Spanish planning, yes. Philip had also, prior to the Armada setting out, explicitly forbade making a surprise attack. The Armada's captains at the council of war they convened favoured storming Plymouth on the incoming tide, which would occur as they arrived, to smash the English fleet there and seize the port. They could have in theory easily destroyed much of the English fleet while it was trapped by the tide and won a foothold on English soil, were it not for a distant sovereign ignorant of the conditions in the field insisting on exerting control. Ah, back to the story… Only 123 ships of the Armada had arrived off Lizard Point in Cornwall on July 19, as some had to turn back or seek harbour in France for repairs due to storms in the Bay of Biscay." Well, at least she wasn't too slow at note-taking, Walker thought as he paused again to let her catch up, and… there were no questions as he hadn't clearly baited her to any conclusions near the end there.

He continued once she was about done with the notes. "The Spanish had been sighted the night before they sighted England, by a string of fishing boats deployed out to sea as a picket line, passing the signal to the shore by torches hidden from the Spanish sight by wooden boxes with one side cut out. Previous reports from fishing boats coming in from the Bay of Biscay, moving faster than the fleet due to not needing to coordinate themselves, had shown the Spanish to be taking a direct course for the English Channel. Thus, the English heavy forces were daringly deployed to the Isles of Scilly, at the far western end of Cornwall. They smashed into the rearguard of the Spanish fleet with the wind in the afternoon of July 19, while the Spanish commanders were on the flagship for their council of war. Sailing ships are not able to head too close to the upwind direction, so the fleet upwind has a great advantage, being able to control the engagement, and concentrate firepower against a portion of the enemy fleet while it was struggling to reinforce those ships being engaged."

"The Spanish were sailing slowly in a disorganized and somewhat strung-out formation, tired from the journey and convening the commanders partly just to determine the formation they would enter the Channel in, among other plans. It was against such an opponent that the English fleet sliced into the loose tail of the formation, such that the British could fire off both broadsides while still using their speed and manoeuvrability to keep beyond grappling range, as the Spanish were better at boarding actions and melee combat. Due to the looseness of the Spanish fleet that the English were penetrating through and several heavy ships focusing on each targeted enemy, they were able to pound six Spanish ships badly enough that they either sank outright or were left behind, then boarded and seized."

"When night fell, Drake turned back to loot the Spanish ships left adrift, capturing much-needed gunpowder and gold. Gunpowder required saltpetre, charcoal, and sulfur. Charcoal was easy enough to obtain, but saltpetre was mainly imported, and so was sulfur. Icelandic sulfur had removed the realm's need to trade for foreign sulfur, so more saltpetre could be bought abroad by the same trade missions. However, the numbers demonstrated the grave need for domestic production, so there was much investment into the industry and about ten percent of England's needs were met by production in England by the time of the war with Spain." The most important lessons Walker could possibly teach were all focused on economics and logistics, by far the true foundations of war and peace alike.

"The English heavy fleet was able to rally at the Spanish ships left adrift, guided in part by Drake's partially occluded lanterns that he used to guide the fleet, something he learnt from an ex-Danish smuggler who used to operate in Iceland. Shortly after midnight, after sharing out the captured gunpowder between the English ships, they sailed east following the Armada, leaving the captured ships and any remaining loot onboard to the conscripted civilians. Smaller boats had been conscripted from the communities along the shore, and these prize crews began nursing the badly damaged ships toward nearby ports, mostly toward Plymouth. Alternatively, if a ship's condition was inadequate, they could be beached for looting. Drake's fleet sighted the Spanish again in the morning of the 20th, beginning the second battle slightly before noon near the Eddystone Rocks. The Armada was arranged in a crescent defensive formation, with he major ships in the center and at the tips, bulging toward the east. Aiming to drive the Spanish into the rocks, Drake attacked in line of battle with the wind from the southwest, picking off several more Spanish ships along that flank. When the Spanish tried to manoeuvre their formation to counter him, three carracks from the northern wing grounded themselves on the Eddystone Rocks, and the Spanish were thrown into disarray." He noted these rocks on his sketch of the coasts. "The rocks were fully submerged at the high near-spring tide, spring tide being the highest of tides when the Sun and Moon align. Because July 20, 1588 was just before the new moon when the Moon would rise and set with the Sun, the tides were rather high and just beginning to recede in the early afternoon."

"The Spanish admiral in charge, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had no naval experience and wrote to Philip before the venture of his doubts but had the letter blocked by courtiers on the grounds that God would ensure the Armada's success, was forced to withdraw to the east as the rest of the British Fleet, under Lord Howard of Effingham, was closing in on the northern flank from the west of the rocks after seeing the Spanish ship run aground. Effingham was not nearly as experienced as Drake, so he let Drake have practical command when feasible, despite Drake being Vice Admiral to him, and gave Drake all the heavy ships. Effingham dispatched a number of small conscripted boats to quickly loot the grounded Spanish ships before the next high tide potentially floated them off to sink, but his main force joined Drake's loosely, for fear of collisions in the evening as the fleets disengaged for the night."

"Due to the delicate operation of salvaging more gunpowder from these rather more thoroughly incapacitated Spanish ships, and the lack of a prevailing surface current in the area, the English only caught up to the Spanish again on the 22nd south of Portland after affecting what minor repairs they could do at sea. Drake had observed that many of the Spanish guns were in positions that could not be reloaded during battle, and thus Effingham ordered the deployment of his forces in three lines of battle, two enveloping the Spanish northern wing and the third attacking from the south to tie up the potential reinforcements. This was in case the Armada tried to make for the Solent, a sheltered strait separating the Isle of Wight and England. After baiting Spanish gunfire beyond effective range, the English closed to batter the Spanish ships into submission. While the English fleet managed to disable a significant number of Spanish ships, capturing even more gunpowder from the battered wrecks in the night, this and more were expended in battle the next day."

"On the 23rd of July, 1588, the wind turned to come from the east, favouring the Spanish in a battle to the east of the previous day's combat. The English, emboldened by their victories, with adequate gunpowder and the knowledge that their cannons could only penetrate the Spanish hulls reliably within about one hundred yards, formed parallel lines of battle and pincered one great group of the Spanish at a time, with Effingham's middleweight forces standing fast in the center and firing to both sides as Drake hammed the Spanish from the south and the lighter ships attacked the north wing, such that Medina Sidonia had to send his reserves south to hold off Drake. The wind turned again as night fell, and the Spanish were forced to leave behind some badly damaged ships that had been abandoned and left adrift in anticipation of coming back to potentially salvage them after driving off the English. The large quantities of supplies onboard when examined confirmed the previous observations of the Spanish not often reloading their cannons, showing that the previously captured examples were not dedicated supply ships. While the fleet was still quite short on gunpowder and suitable heavy shot, these new captures did help. Exhausted and demoralized, the Spanish were forced to make for Calais, with Drake's force hounding them every step of the way while Effingham, having passed all his remaining heavy shot and powder to Drake, returned to England for resupply. This was done with knowledge from Dutch sources that the Army of Flanders had made no actions to gather the transports it would need to cross the shallows out to the Armada in anything under a week and a half at best. There were no deep-water harbours available along the Spanish Netherlands coast for the army to embark at, nor for the Armada to shelter in."

"Parma's army had been reduced to 16,000 by disease, and were camped at Dunkirk, without being assembled properly in the port and without enough transports. Dunkirk was also blockaded by a fleet of thirty Dutch flyboats, small, shallow-draft warships. Parma wanted the Armada to send its light ships to drive off the Dutch, but Sidonia feared he needed those ships to defend his tightly-packed defensive crescent off Calais. Effingham passed supplies to Drake when he returned from resupply on the 28th, while the English watched the Spanish be idle after anchoring off Calais on the 27th. Despite their losses so far, the Spanish currently still outgunned the English on paper. However, the English had prepared better and had better doctrines, better general practices for their forces. The Royal Fleet's lighter, speedier, and less visible ships were sent north under the rear admiral John Hawkins, after Effingham resupplied Drake and discussed plans. This squadron moved east once out of sight to outflank the enemy, using the picket ships deployed around the Spanish to know how to keep out of sight."

"At four o'clock in the morning of the 29th of July, the tail end of the time when the human body is the frailest, the English sacrificed ten of their most badly damaged ships by filling them with pitch, brimstone, tar, and some gunpowder, sailing them toward the Spanish formation, and sailing straight past the picket ships before the few hand-picked crewmen on each ship lit the fuses and boarded their boats, cutting loose only once the ships were visibly burning. Due to some of the fireships being atypically large, they were thought by the Spanish to be 'hellburners', heavily loaded with gunpowder and sealed in for a huge blast effect, as used at the Siege of Antwerp just under three years ago by the siege engineer who now worked for Elizabeth. In fact, the English had nowhere near enough gunpowder onboard for that magnitude of explosion, being rather short of shot and powder alike. Regardless, the late raising of the alarm due to the very late ignition of the fireships and their size created mass panic among most of the already quite demoralized Armada."

"Though the main warships held their stations, the armed merchantmen cut their anchor cables and routed outright, fleeing with the wind to the northeast. Hawkins's battle line, hidden by the darkness of the night, went to full sail and opened fire on the Spanish after he estimated somewhat more than half the merchants had sped past his force. This surprise night attack provoked even greater terror and many friendly fire incidents among the Spanish while Hawkins withdrew northward before moving west to rejoin the main English fleet, fearful of his ships mistaking each other and firing upon each other, not to mention general wastage of ammunition in the dark without the ambush granting enough time to line up well with their targets. In the meantime, Drake and Effingham pounced on the Spanish warships that had held station and, in two cases, were rammed by the fireships, one exploding spectacularly from the powder stores catching fire. This shook the Spanish warship crews, who now seemed to have proof that some of the fireships were in fact 'hellburners'. There were at least two collisions between the Spanish warships trying to stay clear of the fireships that night."

"Drake and Effingham were rejoined by the light squadron shortly after mid-morning on the 29th of July. The English continued pummelling the Spanish Fleet until the afternoon, when the Spanish finally managed to disengage to the northeast and English ammunition was mostly depleted despite Effingham's scouring of whatever he could find from the south coast ports. They would need to resupply soon, and the Spanish plan had been thoroughly destroyed, so the English disengaged and let the Spanish flee. Effingham remained on station, monitoring the badly damaged Spanish fleet while sending Drake to resupply his ships directly, from the southeastern ports of England. Effingham hoped that some of the Spanish ships would founder on the shoals of the Netherlands, from which the Dutch had removed the sea marks, and indeed this occurred. Effingham stalked the Spanish up the North Sea to the latitude of the Firth of Forth, after which he returned to port to resupply and to prevent scurvy among the sailors, which usually appears after a month at sea without fresh food. The decisive threat of an invasion of England was over. Though there was an outbreak of typhus, the lack of being cramped onboard the ships helped prevent it from getting too far, and Elizabeth was persuaded by Drake and Effingham to pay the sailors after the victory, to keep the experienced crews available for launching a major counter-attack on the Spanish coastline."

"Medina Sidonia, already being in high latitudes and suffering from shortages of water and with the troops suffering from scurvy, decided that attacking the Faroes and Iceland with his remaining troops should hopefully be enough to beat back the scurvy long enough to get his remaining ships home. If the islands could be occupied, well, that would be better than this utter disaster. However, due to strong westerly winds, many of the ships were driven ashore and wrecked on the Faroes, and this convinced Medina Sidonia that God did not wish for Iceland to be attacked. Thus, he headed southwest to bypass Scotland and Ireland after scrounging what fresh provisions he could from ashore. Due to ocean currents and lack of means to measure longitude in those times, the Armada was further east than they thought when they turned south, and many of the ships were wrecked on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland because they had abandoned their anchors in their haste to flee at Calais. In total, 46 ships and 6000 men survived to return to Spain, with most of the men near death from disease and dying afterward. Philip II, upon learning of the result, declared 'I sent the Armada against men, not God's winds and waves'."

"So… what could the English possibly have done better?" That was usually the question to ask. There were many ways to make something worse, but to think of ways to make an already spectacular victory better without messing other things up took more serious effort.

"The Spanish were anchored off Calais in heavy ships that couldn't get close to shore… were they getting fresh food for their crews? You said fresh food could prevent scurvy."

Walker snorted at the thought of the aristocrats actually taking care of those that their lives depended on. "Most likely no, at least, almost certainly not for the crews, maybe for the officers."

"Then the English could have waited longer, rotating squadrons on duty, being a constant threat occupying the Spanish light ships, and let the Dutch boats destroy the Army of Flanders as it eventually tries to cross the shallows?"

"That would have made the later campaigns much more convenient, yes, and the Dutch had enough light craft and handled them well enough they probably could have beaten the Spanish light craft well enough on their own, as the storms had turned back most of the Spanish galleys. However, overall, I would say the English navy was handled as well as could sensibly be expected. One of the medals struck in commemoration read in Latin and Hebrew 'Flavit יהוה et Dissipati Sunt', which would translate to 'He blew and they were scattered' if one was not too literal. One of the less serious medals struck made plays on Julius Caesar's 'Veni, Vidi, Vici' which meant 'I came, I saw, I conquered', by changing it to 'He came, he saw, he fled', which in Latin was 'Venit, Vidit, Fugit'. Given the etymology of 'fuck' as a curse word of extreme dismay or disdain, originating with using the word for sexual activity, stretches back to before 1500? It seems the medal designers knew very well what they were doing."

Walker delivered this with slow nods and an impressed expression. After all, Puritan families often all slept on one bed, which rather meant children were aware of the facts of life very early on, so there was nothing wrong with noting these things except in the petty false veneers of over-spiritualist hysteria. "That's it for now. Let's go get you something to eat." It would not do for his student to catch too much wind of how much he remembered of the consequences of spiritualists. At least, not yet.


XX


Archivists' Notes, Chapter 3:

1. The use of "fun" as an adjective is from the mid-19th century. While it would be appropriate here it would be anachronistic, as pointed out by proofreaders unfazed by the argument that this is a story being narrated far in the future of the events depicted.

2. The amount of "stupid and proud of it" that we may or may not have encouraged by laughing off labels of madness and folly is, ah, not the proudest achievement of SI factional history. Yes, normal humanity i.e. idiocy should have produced more than enough such fools anyhow, but the accusations are quite plausible that our example tragically led to some more.

 

[Guardian54]

I hope the heavily abbreviated scientific elaborations are things that sound reasonable in terms of explaining things to a seven-year-old. Because I don't know how to dumb it down any further.

And I hope the clobbering delivered to the Spanish make sense... even if I had to make an oblique reference to the Danish monopoly system in Iceland, which, while OTL only imposed in 1602, I believe should have had traces of the idea since the Kalmar Union formed, as to quote Wikipedia: "Unlike Norway, Denmark did not need Iceland's fish and homespun wool." as per History of Iceland - Wikipedia

So I trust there were lots of smugglers in addition to official merchants. With TTL Henry buying Iceland in 1535, 5 years before Drake was born, it's not impossible for Drake to have picked the idea of directional lamps by use of boxes up from an old, retired smuggler.

And yes, Kane tried to play God, and failed because Mary was a moron, so he didn't bother fixing her uterine cancer.

 

[perfectgeneral]

Your treatment of the channel battles of the Spanish Armada are detailed and well paced. Great work.

 

[Prince Charon]

Well, this is interesting. Thank you for pointing me to it.

 

[jdub1597]

I feel I have been playing too many Paradox games. This sounds like a Stellaris 2.0 veteran narrating a CK2/EU4 save too a noob.

Basically this with a voiceover by the Doctor.

Spoiler

 

[D Northern Star]

Brilliant story Really

 

[Guardian54]

Your treatment of the channel battles of the Spanish Armada are detailed and well paced. Great work.

Click to shrink...

In other words, no "fleet stack wipe in 1 battle" unlike many TLs with lots of WHANGs
Yeah, round shot, even heated, isn't as good as either side would like at wrecking wooden ships.

Even just a couple more shiploads of goods bought abroad before the war, and a couple more ships captured, means a lot once you set the dominoes rolling. Add a couple extra ideas and it's a total stomp

Well, this is interesting. Thank you for pointing me to it.

Click to shrink...

I hope the characters don't come across too badly. Kane Walker is supposed to basically act the mysterious old mentor, and Ellen's supposed to come across as a (very intelligent) kid who's trying hard to reach the encouraged conclusions she's being taught.

I suspect she could seem a bit too passive in these history lectures, but showing them playing chess or something more active would a) show I'm a noob at chess and b) not plot out the past events of the timeline well.

I feel I have been playing too many Paradox games. This sounds like a Stellaris 2.0 veteran narrating a CK2/EU4 save too a noob.

Click to shrink...

That's more or less what it's intended to be like for now, cause it's history class. The general tracks are OTL history, but the divergences are significant enough that I kind of had to go History Lecture for the early chapters.

 

[DarknessSmiles]

So i read the original. Huge fan of red alert series, less so for the rest but instill liked them.

For the most part, i liked the original. It was fun. Interesting. But there were quality issues, especially twoards the end.

I strongly, strongly recommend that you keep the crossovers to the absolute minimum. Halo or mass effect only. None of the magic crap. I think that is where you really started to go downhill. It just does not fit well.

 

[Guardian54]

A/N: This is the Uncensored Edition where all the notable battles are very detailed, for those addicted to historical details and tracking butterflies. I've posted the Standard Edition version a few posts down for those of us who aren't reading this with Wikipedia open on another tab to check things.

I'm assuming Iceland, the Faroes, more Caribbean colonies and the slave trade in the ABC islands give enough total enough sailors and revenue to support up to about 5 more warships (2 of which are heavy ships) in the English National/Royal Fleet per major battle over OTL (if you look up the numbers). I'm also assuming losing the ABC islands result in one Dutch warship less per battle, unless previous losses make me reasonably remove more.

Ye gods the word count bloated up pretty hard before I could get away from the most egregious strategic errors Walker started noticing time was running short and started abbreviating, reminding himself tactical/strategic lessons could be discussed later.

Spoiler: Unimportant Ranting

Been massively RAEGMODE recently after learning of Kishimoto's "terrible woman" interview about Sakura. I suspect even I am better at writing romance than Kishimoto, even if it's based purely on "I find life more pleasant in their company and we have lots of fun times together" whenever economics aren't a serious issue in the calculation, which is a really damned low standard. Then again, the SI Archives will have no romance or even intentional subplots thereof for the foreseeable future, though Ellen's story is going to be seen as the inspiration to Lolita by idiots too dumb to check the dates and implied ages (i.e. early 1780s at least). Don't worry about massive swarms of enormous red herrings eclipsing the sky like Kishimoto apparently decided to excuse his crap with.

BTW guys as a biology/ecology student, the Naruto manga chapter 503 page 9 line to Kurenai totally makes sense even though it sounds very sexist. A society losing half the men in each generation to warfare can survive and even thrive. Try that with women and it goes kaput very quickly. It has thus been amply demonstrated by history that males are more expendable than females. This falls under "Truth In Television" trope, sorry.

However, I can guarantee one thing: The Archives will not end with "a permeating bitter, careless emptiness". I've worked on the concepts for nearly a third of my life and I have FAR too much pride (to be more specific, the Arrogance of Men) to let it go so easily. Plus publishing these days is easier and less editor/publisher-dependent than in Kishimoto's day.

XX


Chapter 1-4: Into the Americas


The next time they had time to discuss history, Walker started with the later events of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, after the Armada, and the sound thrashing delivered to Spain. "Due to the great victory against the Spanish Armada and the Icelanders still remembering Elizabeth sending admittedly token aid after the relatively minor 1580 eruption at Katla and somewhere near Eldey in 1582, there was much enthusiasm there for serving in the Navy. This availability of fishermen, the traditional source of naval manpower, combined with the survivors of the previous campaign, meant the English Armada assembled in 1589 was almost a standing navy. The funds spared from the efforts of attracting new recruits and of equipping a large army allowed the fleet to purchase some gloriously useful siege guns nearly at the last moment, though this would prove not as adequate as they'd have liked. The expedition relied on ambitious plans seeking a repeat of Drake's raid on Cadiz two years ago, which was of course unrealistic. However, Elizabeth had had enough exposure over the years to the pretender she'd backed in the War of the Portuguese Succession to realize that the Prior of Crato lacked the charisma and connections to back his claims. Portugal was very unlikely to rise for him, and thus Elizabeth designated the primary goal to be the elimination of the Spanish navy."

Now Walker began pointing to the map. "The winds and currents of the Bay of Biscay led Drake to fear being embayed, meaning trapped in the bay. He did not wish to attack San Sebastian near the French border, nor Santander, about forty percent of the way from the French border to the northwest tip of Iberia. However, the size of his fleet and observing that the Spanish probably used those ports for most of the Armada's survivors meant that Drake decided that venturing to attack Santander and then raid the coast westward would be worth the risk… if he could just draw away the Spanish army forces first… Otherwise, storming the port could be rather difficult…"

"Drake himself led one-third of the fleet to head out first to assault Coruna, more or less on the northwest corner of Iberia, arriving on April 30 and commencing a siege that day. The few Spanish warships not sunk in battle were captured, and the lower city was sacked. However, the Spanish managed to fight off Drake's siege, partly due to their couple remaining ships repeatedly sneaking past the English at night to gather supplies. Drake's veteran crews sighted the ships twice, but as per orders let them go. Their efforts included a pike counter-charge by the surviving women of the city when the medieval walls were finally breached, led by Maria Pita, wife of the governor, who is celebrated in Spain to this day. Drake withdrew after twelve days, after receiving word from outriders that Spanish reinforcements had been spotted coming from the direction of Santander as the road network recommended. Pulling troops from Portugal would be most foolhardy if the English were planning to raid down the coast again like two years ago…"

"The other elements of the English Armada had set out two weeks after Drake's detachment. A two-force manoeuvre, though very difficult to coordinate, had been so effective battling the Spanish Armada that Drake thought trying it again might be worthwhile, but not a third time as the enemy would expect such by then. Any more moving parts would be too risky though. This main force hit Santander's greatly reduced garrison thirteen days after Drake arrived at Coruna. While they did not have adequate siege guns to reduce the citadels, nor the men to storm them, they were able to lay siege well enough to prevent a sally while wresting significant control over the harbour area. This led to the capture of over a dozen of Spain's remaining galleons and some lesser ships. Most of the other ships were razed by the English or blown up by the Spanish to deny capture."

"Unfortunately, the later steps of the English Armada's expedition did not go so well. Drake was an excellent naval commander, but by sieging Coruna for so long in the name of crippling Spanish naval power, the Spanish had time to reinforce the Portuguese coast defences, which meant trying to attack Lisbon and stir up a Portuguese uprising against the Spanish proved a failure. A fleet of French and Hanseatic blockade runners were captured, but Drake was forced to retreat from Lisbon by the lack of local support and not enough troops nor guns to really press the siege. The adventure was inconclusive but had at least badly smashed the Spanish fleet and laid the path for greater success of English privateers in the coming years."

"Now, we can talk about that in more detail later, but the naval war ended up going Britain's way overall, despite Spain reforming its navy and implementing reasonably effective convoy practices. Convoys are ships sailing in groups for mutual protection, often with dedicated warship escorts. The most decisive parts to the final peace include Drake and Hawkins dying of disease in the 1595-1596 expedition against the Spanish Main, a term for the Spanish-held coastline in the New World, the sacking of Cadiz in 1596, the failures of the Second and Third Spanish Armadas, the successful occupation of Puerto Rico, and dragging the land war out so much that Spain simply ran out of money with how it was bleeding trade value at sea. The main Spanish treasure fleets had been generally kept safe except a couple of major fleet actions, but other Spanish merchants often didn't even dare leave port with how successful English privateers were… At the end of the war in 1604, England obtained Barbados from Spain, though there were plans to intrude into the Spanish-claimed Lesser Antilles anyhow barring catastrophic loss of the war, plans which were pushed ahead." There was of course plenty of map pointing during this highly abbreviated summary "So, summarize the lessons of the war for me."

It took Ellen a while to think it through and formulate the appropriate phrasing "If a knock-out blow against the enemy is impossible or won't be favourable, you should seek to exhaust the enemy and deny him the chance to land a knock-out blow. A distraction can be useful in drawing away the enemy troops, but only if you hold the full initiative and have enough advantages to not get surprised, and don't rely on more than two major moving elements at a time."

"Yes, economics and logistics, and their mixture to provide the ability to keep materials flowing, the populace fed and reasonably content, the troops supplied, and so on, are crucial to the art of war. However, England was also horribly exhausted by the war, despite winning. To drag a war out, to strangle your enemy slowly while others land the body blows, the Dutch and French in this case, is hugely costly. And that cost, the exhaustion, makes for vulnerability… except in one particular case, when everyone else is too occupied or too weakened themselves. It is said that the power to defeat the enemy depends on the enemy, while the power to make ourselves undefeatable lies with ourselves, though the words are not as simple as they sound." It would be much later that Ellen would learn that Walker was very likely referring to the ancient Chinese text, the Art of War. This was odd given how isolationist China was.

"The enormous profits from privateering allowed the rapid colonization of Barbados, which was granted colony status on paper immediately after annexation in 1604 in anticipation of a major land grab in the Antilles. Spain claimed the Antilles, but had not colonized the minor islands, and did not have the funds to colonize them now nor the desire to export people, as opposed to keeping the manpower on hand to rebuild their economy. Newfoundland formally became a colony in 1606, with Bermuda and Virginia following in 1607. The sailors and soldiers of the last war needed someplace to retire to, and since Elizabeth had paid them enough to keep them from dying in squalor, James I took advantage of having settlers well able to defend themselves against Native attacks, and well able to do most of the job of getting there in the first place too. Barbados was thus ready to be used as a launch point for further colonization very quickly. St. Lucia was colonized in 1610, St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1612, and Granada in 1615. James' reign had been stabilized by successful foiling of the Gunpowder Plot and the ensuing crackdowns, reassuring Protestants in England that James would side with them in sectarian disputes."

"England's next major war was again with Spain, declared by James' successor Charles I in 1625, as James was a pacifist and refused to declare war. In fact, James poured funds into building colonies. Martini, renamed from the Spanish "Matinino" with effort to not match the name of St. Martin or San Martin, became a colony in 1623 near the existing colonies. He also jumped over a few islands to St. Kitts and Nevis, which also gained colony status in 1623, specifically to find an excuse to invest in things with real purposes other than war. After piecemeal defeat of English and Dutch reinforcements by the Spanish at the Siege of Breda in 1624, Charles ordered the mustering of a fleet for an expedition to attack Cadiz, in hopes of plundering Spanish New World silver and putting serious pressure on Spain's lines of communication."

"The expedition ended up a minor monetary loss but a great embarrassment, as the Duke of Buckingham did not adequately supply the expedition, despite Sir Edward Cecil pleading for more food, water and siege guns to be carried with the fleet. Cecil was experienced in land combat, but not in naval affairs. He attempted to emulate the aggression that had served so well in the previous war, instructing that ships closest inshore were to attack enemy shipping at will. This aggression captured five Spanish merchant ships of notable value and several other minor ships but resulted in the loss of two already storm-damaged warships. Cecil was forced to withdraw by inadequate water supplies prompting many of the men to drink from local houses' wine vats, resulting in over 500 men who had to be hauled back to the fleet. An effort to intercept a fleet of Spanish galleons from the New World also failed, the Spanish having taken a more southern route after being warned at sea by ships bearing the news of the new war to the New World."

"This expensive failure, or rather lack of smashing success like previous raids on Cadiz despite Parliament believing that Cecil had done the best he could with what he'd been sent with, was not investigated by Charles. Charles eventually dissolved Parliament instead of letting his favourite, Buckingham, be impeached for his failures to adequately supply the expedition. Buckingham later tried to negotiate for French aid in exchange for English ships to fight the Huguenots, but failed, with Buckingham blaming it all on Richelieu and switching to backing the Huguenots. Forces under his command were smashed several times until the incompetent fool Buckingham was stabbed to death in 1628 in a pub by a former officer. Charles' coddling of Buckingham killed him and helped lead to the English Civil War." Walker sounded somewhat bitter for whatever reason.

"After the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet by the Dutch in 1628 and the smashing of a major Spanish fleet by the English Caribbean Fleet in 1629, the Spanish sought a treaty, especially once the War of the Mantuan Succession began. The 1626 attempt by the Spanish to dislodge the English colonies had failed spectacularly in assaulting Barbados. They were subjected to a bad turn of the wind that let the English Caribbean Fleet pin the Spanish in-shore while they were offloading troops for the assault, between the shore batteries and the fleet. Now that the new fleet of 1629 had been staved off by the main colonies established from Barbados, and ambushed when they were heading to St. Kitts after seizing Nevis, Spain wanted out. It was a quick status quo ante bellum treaty. The war had been painfully expensive for England, while being but a minor a side show for Spain and France. The cost and other problems would help contribute to the Monarchy's disputes with Parliament that led to the English Civil War."

Walker waited for Ellen's notes to catch up before handwaving a great deal of history for now "The English Civil War and immediately related wars are rather complex and we can talk about them in great detail later. Suffice it to say that the Parliamentarians won and the English 'Commonwealth' was established under Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship. However, during this timeframe, colonization continued. St. Croix in the Virgin Islands was colonized in 1625, Antigua and Barbuda in 1632, St. John in the Virgin Islands in 1633, St. Thomas in 1635, Tortola in 1637, the Bahamas in 1648 and Anguilla in 1650."

"England fought a series of wars in the years immediately after the Civil War ended in 1651. The First Anglo-Dutch War for example was from 1652 to 1654, followed immediately by another Anglo-Spanish War. By that time, the Dutch had more ships than the rest of Europe combined, but had recently conquered most the Portuguese empire in the East Indies, so were stretched thin due to the long, long trade route around Africa to the East Indies, and the long sea lanes. The English Civil War had severely disrupted trade with their North American colonies, so they were also hardly at their best. The Dutch did not use tariffs, so had a competitive advantage when the English were unable to restrict their trade as much as they would like with the equipment and abilities of the time. So the Dutch were stealing England's trade with the English colonies! In the midst of these irritations, Cromwell somehow had the delusion that the Dutch wished to merge with England. Many had wished for such in Elizabeth's day, but those sentiments had long faded."

"The English began with some success in convoy warfare, then suffered a reverse at the Battle of Plymouth, where the smaller Dutch fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Tromp fought the English into withdrawing due to the faster, professional English ships racing ahead to engage, failing to form a battle line, passing through the Dutch fleet and ceding the weather gage. The slower, conscripted merchantmen arrived to find a confused melee and were understandably reluctant to press the attack without navy ships leading them into the fray or herding them forward. The Dutch tried to press their advantages in seamanship at the Battle of the Kentish Knock under Vice-Admiral Witte de With, a commission that caused a rift between Holland and Zeeland as de With had personal enmity with the Zeeland fleet commander. De With attacked with 62 ships, 1900 guns and 7000 sailors, against an English fleet under Robert Blake of 71 ships, 2500 guns and 11,000 sailors. This seeking of a decisive battle was against the advice of the channel squadron commander, Vice-Commodore Michiel de Ruyter, who suggested continuing to distract the English from the merchant convoys."

"On the morning of September 28, the Dutch fleet had been scattered by a gale the previous night, and the English had the weather gauge with a gentle south-southwestern wind. However, the English were unable to close quickly enough and by the early afternoon the Dutch had rallied, except five ships that had drifted too far north. De With was forced to hoist his flag on a large, sluggish Dutch East India Company ship instead of Tromp's former flagship, as the crew refused to let him board and threatened to fire on his boat. De With's reputation among the common sailors was so foul that thousands had deserted upon hearing he was to be commander. He was dismayed to find his new flagship with most of the officers drunk and the crew untrained. Blake only managed to catch up to the Dutch at 17:00, or five in the afternoon, upon which the wind slackened further, causing the two fleets to slowly grind past each other. The larger and heavier-armed English fleet inflicted a severe pounding on the Dutch, though some ships ran aground on sand banks and the action had to be broken off at 19:00 due to it being too dark to fight. De With's flagship had been disabled during the battle, leading to chaos. Several Dutch ships deserted the fleet during the night, adding to the battle losses of two ships captured by the English, two others foundering from excessive damage, and one blown up."

"By the next morning, the Dutch had 48 ships to a reinforced fleet of 87 English ships, but De With still stubbornly insisted on making another effort. Manoeuvring to the south to catch the southeast wind, some of the Dutch ships drifted too far west and were smashed by the English rearguard. The English and Dutch fleets collided, and due to the decisive English numerical advantage, the Dutch fleet was routed, particularly once the wind shifted to the northeast and the English regained the weather gauge. Seven Dutch ships were captured, one having to be beached to not founder from damage, and three destroyed before the Dutch managed to disengage. The retreat was covered by a dozen ships led by De Ruyter and the Dutch did not lose any more ships on their way home. This battle pushed the Dutch to start a major shipbuilding program of sixty heavy ships, and caused the English to become overconfident, sending away much of their fleet to the Mediterranean and the Baltic. Other heavy ships were laid up for repair, and many of the sailors deserted or rioted because their wages were held unpaid in arrears, a term that means 'after the fact' as compared to being 'in advance'."

"The next major battle was the Battle of Dungeness in late November, or December 1 New Style, where the remaining 45 capital ships and 10 smaller vessels of the English Home Fleet were found by Tromp's 64 warships. This force was searching for the English main fleet, expecting them to have sent ships away for repair and to other theatres, after escorting a convoy of some 270 merchantmen and 15 warships past the Straits of Dover. Blake led the English fleet to attempt to escape around the coast, but the Dutch had placed a stalling force in the passage he hoped to use, forcing him to battle as trying to use the passage one by one would see his ships overcome one by one. De Ruyter, commanding the stalling force, attempted to convince his own ships to attack the mass of English ships from the rear through said channel, but none of the other ships followed him, causing him to angrily write in his journal that if they had followed his lead, the whole English fleet could have been crushed. Two Dutch warships were destroyed in the battle, one exploding due to fire, and one English warship was captured, with two others sunk. In the ensuing pursuit and harassment of the English coast, several English merchantmen and another warship were captured. Tromp wanted to attack Blake in the Medway, but despite offering a reward of fifty Flemish pounds not one pilot in the Dutch fleet dared attempt navigating those waters. It would be fifteen years later that De Ruyter would manage such an attack."

"This battle led to changes in English regulations on impressed merchant ships in the fleet, namely that they had to obey naval commands. Fighting and Sailing Instructions were also issued to improve command and control, and the fleet squadron divisions were better regulated. Legend says that Tromp attached a broom to his mast to show that he had swept the enemy from the seas, but this is dubious as Tromp was not boastful, and at the time such a broom on the main mast advertised that the ship was for sale!" Walker took another drink as even this joke had not given his student nearly enough time to finish scribbling down her notes, despite several pauses in his delivery.

"Subsequently, there was the Battle of Portland, in late February of 1653. Tromp escorted a convoy of merchantmen through the Channel into the Atlantic in early February, and anchored off La Rochelle to wait for returning merchants to rally with him. 152 merchantmen had gathered by February 20, but several days of bad sailing conditions led Tromp to only sail on the 24th. On the 28th he met Blake's fleet off Portland, and immediately signalled general attack, launching the offensive with the wind in his favour. De Ruyter's squadron managed to isolate, board and capture the largest ship in the English fleet, but was almost surrounded before they managed to fight their way free. The next day, the wind favoured the English, but they failed six times to penetrate the Dutch battle line, though Blake's frigates captured 12 merchantmen trying to slip past against Tromp's direct orders. After this second day, most of the Dutch ships were almost out of ammunition, and there was none to resupply with. On the third day, the English initially again failed to break the Dutch line, but Tromp had to fire shots across the bows of some of the Dutch ships which tried to flee after running out of ammunition. Despite being wounded in the thigh, Blake pressed the attack after realizing Tromp's efforts to stiffen the Dutch fleet's resolve meant the Dutch were almost completely out of ammunition and/or morale. Nightfall forced the action to be broken off, and the next morning Blake found Tromp had escaped by hugging the coast during the night. While Tromp's escape from certain defeat was a masterstroke, Blake had secured a decisive victory, taking twelve Dutch warships and forty merchant ships as prizes."

"The English correctly employing battle line tactics led the Dutch to conclude that they would no longer be able to compensate inadequate firepower with superior seamanship, and thus absolutely had to build more heavy ships. Then there was the Battle of Leghorn where the reinforced English Mediterranean fleet met the Dutch and neither side gained the upper hand. A 16-ship Dutch force destroyed two and captured three English ships from an isolated group of six before a reinforcing squadron of sixteen English ships arrived on the scene to meet the surviving warship that managed to escape. Seventeen English, with one significantly damaged, versus nineteen Dutch with four damaged was an even enough match-up that neither side particularly desired to risk control of the Mediterranean. After some exchanges of fire, both fleets broke off contact, with the Dutch admiral dying later of wounds. During this time, the Dutch lost Dutch Brazil back to the Portuguese and suffered in their efforts in the Dutch-Portuguese War, which had lasted over 50 years by then."

"The English navy challenged the Dutch for control of the North Sea on June 2, 1653 in the Battle of the Gabbard. 105 English ships fought 95 Dutch ships, pummelling the lighter Dutch ships trying to board on the first day, and smashing them by superior firepower and a weakening wind on the second day when Tromp tried to push through the English line. The Dutch lost 6 ships sunk and 11 captured for no English losses, and were pinned into their own harbours while the English blockaded the Dutch coast, causing a rapid collapse of the Dutch economy and an inability to feed the dense urbanized population. The Dutch had not exported nearly enough people to their colonies to achieve agricultural sustainability and relied on Baltic grain imports, a problem we should not need to be concerned about in North America."

"A blockade would still be very bad for us though. We sell things to Europe that Europe wants, like wood and food, in exchange for getting things we have a hard time making for ourselves…" Ellen raised the counterpoint he'd manoeuvred her into bringing up. While children could often see things adults did not, they just as often tended to overestimate their own insights as unique and special… If one did not encourage them to make such realizations, they would become thoughtless over time. If one encouraged them too much, they would become arrogant. Ah, but raising children was a delicate thing… hence why Walker had never tried it.

"That is why control of the sea is so crucial in any war. Forget the idea of a short war, any war is a contest of logistics, of economy, of the ability to out-build and outlast your opponent." He paused for a moment "In desperation, the enemy will try the stupidest and most hopeless things. For example, about two months later, on 10 August by the Gregorian calendar, the Dutch sallied forth to the Battle of Scheveningen while their people were starving, instead of launching serious negotiations. Against 125 on average larger and heavier-armed English ships, Tromp could only bring 95 ships and attempt to help de With's 25 ships break out from the island of Texel. The English on August 8 sighted and pursued Tromp's fleet first, aiming to whittle down their numbers, sinking two ships but letting de With given them the slip and meet up with Tromp. After strong winds the next day, Tromp manoeuvre to be north of the English on the 10th, and engaged as the wind turned to favour him. He was killed in the first pass of the fleets when a sharpshooter picked him off from the rigging of William Penn's ship, though this was kept secret from the Dutch fleet to keep morale up. The fleets passed each other four times, the English lost two ships sunk, while sinking 8 Dutch ships and capturing 14. Many other ships were too damaged to keep fighting, and eventually morale broke. A large group of conscripted merchantmen fled to the north and de With had to limit himself to covering the retreat to Texel. The English fleet however had to retreat from damage. Leaving a porous blockade of light ships would invite defeat in detail, so they decided not to."

"Annoyed by Dutch refusal of his initial call for political union, and angered by their refusal of several subsequent demands, Cromwell sortied the light fleet elements in October to blockade the Dutch again to remind them who held the upper hand. It was their refusal of several rounds of his demands that led him to demand the ABC islands, off the coast of South America, in addition to the island of Run in the East Indies. William, Prince of Orange, would also be excluded from government appointments by the Act of Seclusion at Cromwell's demand. Due to soaring food prices from the renewed blockade and the Dutch position being even worse than before the breaking of the initial blockade, the Dutch were forced to accept these terms. It appeared that advisors had persuaded Cromwell that some of the minor humiliations he wanted were worth less than land. On this occasion, anger had been channeled into a useful gesture instead of one based on pride. Those terms he originally wanted would have specified harshly punishing the Amboyna Massacre perpetrators, as those Dutch East India company employees of 30 years ago were already dead, and would have mandated Dutch ships to salute the English flag in the 'English Seas' around England, including the Channel."

Walker pointed these out on the map with a small, mysterious smile. "From west to east, Aruba is hot and dry, perhaps a good place to enjoy the northern hemisphere winter, especially for arthritic retired folks wealthy enough to be bothered to live elsewhere where it is not cold and wet. If that place is too hot, Curacao, spelled with a C despite using the sound of an S, is steady in temperature year-round and has a climate suitable for grassland, with more rainfall than Aruba. Bonaire is similar to Curacao. All three islands are good for salt harvesting, with Curacao and Bonaire offering ability to do some localized agriculture, such as the dyewoods that the Dutch cultivated on Bonaire. Salt is essential for human life, wars have been fought over salt in various civilizations, and in China there is a governmental salt monopoly to, in theory, ensure its steady distribution to reduce unrest. If you go north to establish your own power base, sea salt will be too hard to harvest, so you will have to mine or import it!"

"Then there was the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654-1660. Other than Cromwell, making a mistake of old age and blind fervour by believing the defeat at Hispaniola to be a sign from God and imprisoning General-at-sea William Penn and Robert Venables after their return from conquering Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, England did well enough. Blake's fleet raided Cadiz and intercepted an important Spanish treasure fleet at the Canaries, though the bullion had been landed beforehand so he was unable to seize it from the local forts. The war officially ended in 1660 with the Spanish formally ceding Dunkirk and Mardyck to England. This was after Cromwell's death and the restoration of the Stuarts, but Jamaica and the Caymans were never returned, and Spain was eventually forced to recognize English possession thereof in 1670. However, the Spanish decision to use Dutch shipping to replace their own lost shipping and the effect of Spanish privateers on English merchant ships set the stage for the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665 to 1667. It is perhaps fortunate that the renewed blockade let the English catch up slightly, but they had ended the last war still watching the Dutch economy grow past their own."

"King Charles II sold Dunkirk and Mardyck to France in 1662, but under 300,000 English pounds of the promised half million was ever paid by France. This wasn't nearly enough to fund the king's need to have a popular war to bolster his authority, which was shaky to the point of having trouble collecting taxes. In 1665, England had four times the populace of the Dutch Republic, but fewer urban-dwellers and less ability to spend money. The Plague of 1665-1666, which killed 100,000 people, almost a quarter of London, and the Great Fire of 1666, destroying the homes of 70,000 of the 80,000 inhabitants within the medieval City of London walls, would further diminish the funds available to the English, especially after September 1666. The death toll of that fire was thought to be small, but poor and middle-class deaths were not recorded and the temperature in the firestorm was more than hot enough to melt steel, which would incinerate any remains." Walker's teeth ground together "The foolish historians behave as if the non-wealthy urban-dwellers were not the foundations of any city…"

He shook his head as if to clear it "The battle of Lowestoft, where the Dutch aggressively sought to challenge the English fleet, occurred on June 13, 1665. Due to the economic impact of losing the ABC islands, which were important to the slave trade in the Americas, the Dutch could muster only 100 ships, including twelve large East Indiamen, and the English brought 115 ships, including 25 armed merchants, to the first battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch were split into seven squadrons due to the smaller Dutch admiralties demanding their own squadrons and the Amsterdam and Maas admiralties splitting theirs to make the squadrons of equal size. Van Wassenaer was under orders to attack as soon as he had the weather gauge. On the 11th the fleets sighted each other, but a dead calm made engagement impossible. On the 12th the wind blew from the east, but Van Wassenaer did not attack, perhaps due to concerns that his fleet wasn't trained or heavily gunned enough to fight the English. He attacked on the 13th with a westerly wind, ceding the weather gauge but allowing a potential easy escape. The battle became a wild melee that historians have some trouble agreeing on, and eventually concluded with 20 Dutch ships lost, half of which were sunk, for one minor English ship sunk and one captured. The Dutch were uncoordinated and many fled the battle, including the captured English ship which was sailed back to the Netherlands immediately instead of staying to participate, a practice that was thereafter forbidden."

"This almost matched English incompetence at the Battle of Bergen later that year when they tried and failed to intercept the Dutch East India Company treasure fleet, an action crucial to both sides' ability to continue fighting. Not only did Lord Sandwich split his fleet to try and fail to intercept De Ruyter on his return from the West Indies, but he tried to intimidate the Danish authorities, and then tried to force his way into the Norwegian harbour the day before the Danish order for the Norwegians to cooperate with the English arrived. This attack not only negated the English numerical advantage by lining up ships across the channel of the port while they battered each other with gunfire, but prompted the Dutch to relocate more of their shoreward cannons to an artillery battery they'd set up on land. This more than compensated for the Norwegians sending notice later to the English that they would stand by and let them attack the Dutch, a notice that was not put to use. Sandwich would then fail to intercept the Dutch main fleet despite it being horribly dispersed by a major storm, though he was still able to capture four warships and two major VOC, that's the Dutch East India Company, merchantmen in a skirmish. His taking some of the loot for himself, though perhaps with tacit permission from the king, would get him sacked after it was discovered. Later, in February 1666, the Danes declared war on England after the Dutch paid them, claiming this battle as an excuse." Walker seemed to have suddenly realized he was pretty much monologuing, something good when one was indoctrinating an underling, but undesirable when trying to teach an actual student. "How might the English have done better?"

This took a while for Ellen after the obvious "Do not violently provoke neutral parties when there are any plausible alternatives or a chance they will agree to side with you?" Her other opinions summarized (due to childhood vocabulary limitations) to "If you absolutely have to attack the enemy at a disadvantage, or when your advantages can't be used, create new ones like sending infiltrators ashore to sabotage the Dutch gun battery or find a way to actually use the old ones, such as attacking in waves, of course only starting the attack once the Danes notified them that they would let it happen. They should have rammed at least two fireships into the Dutch defensive line after prompting them to form up, like with the Spanish Armada at Gravelines. When adverse weather conditions or other unpredictable events clearly greatly disrupt the enemy, seek immediate battle with them, either to intimidate them into thinking you are still well organized, or to press an advantage in organization and tear the enemy apart piece by piece."

"But Sir Thomas Teddiman, in charge of the attack, did not have the weather gauge, and decided against use of fireships for fear of risking the cargo." Walker raised a counterpoint to some of these ideas, then tested the waters on the other things he had taught her, besides history. "Admittedly, Teddiman did not place his flagship in the line, despite it being by far the most powerful ship he had, so he was perhaps less than brilliant…"

Ellen's response summarized to "Cowardice! He knew he was risking his entire nation's ability to wage war! That's treasonous unless he proves the ship was too deep or too ungainly to fit in the line! The attack should have waited for Danish permission until news of de Ruyter returning to the Dutch homeland was received, or at the earliest date with both permission and the weather gauge. Fireships burning the valuable cargos are nothing compared to failing to break through and the treasure going to the enemy, better deny it to the enemy than fail utterly."

"While we are merely theory-crafting, I see you seem to have taken well to my tactical lessons. Time will tell how well you can apply these lessons." Walker said before bringing the history lecture back on track, mentally smacking himself about how he had been mixing the lessons too much. The details could wait for later, he'd give her the quick overview of history for now. She was still young, there was still time before she would embark on the path of the Four EX's "Subsequently, the English engaged the Dutch at the Four Days' Battle with 84 ships to the Dutch 83, losing 9 ships to the Dutch losing 5. The battle was tactically relatively inconclusive, as most so-called decisive battle attempts are, and we can discuss the manoeuvres later in our tactical lessons. However, the English had difficulty coming up with the money to repair their ships, especially after the St. James' Day Battle about two months later, and other disasters in 1666, the plague and fire we mentioned earlier in London. Therefore, the Four Days' Battle was an important strategic victory for the Dutch, as their ability to outspend the English was magnified by inflicting greater repair costs on the English."

"However, the English won the St. James' Day Battle decisively, matching their 95 warships and 16 fireships to the Dutch 87 warships, 20 fireship and 9 yachts. De Ruyter had initially called for an aggressive closing from the southeast into a northwest wind, but a shift of the wind meant the English turned to close from the northeast with the wind. The Dutch vanguard was scattered by sudden calm conditions and pummelled to pieces by the English, but the English rear was cut off and mauled. The English lost one heavy ship sunk in their rearguard by a fireship, while the Dutch lost two ships captured and two sunk by the mass fire of the concentrated heavy ships in the English vanguard. Clearly, without surprise or other major compensating factors, a small force should not openly assail a larger one in pitched battle. However, the English could not afford to enforce a close blockade of the Dutch coast, which meant more aggressive raids had to be used, resulting in the attack known as Holmes's Bonfire. Ten English ships navigated a stretch of coast with dangerous shoals thought to be enough defence, aided by a Dutch turncoat, and managed to burn a Dutch fleet of about 130 ships moored in the Vlie estuary, with the Dutch records indicating 114 warships and merchantmen destroyed by the raid sending smaller boats into the estuary and setting fires, which soon spread with the help of the wind pushing the moored ships together. 11 merchantmen were saved from destruction by a large Guineaman merchant ship standing fast and holding the raiders' boats at bay, shielding a few smaller ships in an inlet behind it and assisted by a couple other ships emboldened by its example. What did the Dutch do wrong?"

It took a few moments for Ellen to work through "Not enough defences on this exposed anchorage… they thought it safe… they depended on terrain to stop the enemy. Terrain they themselves could clearly navigate around. The Dutch assumed the English could not possibly know the area anything like how the Dutch did."

"Yes, anywhere a boat can go can be attacked from the water, even the shores of mountaintop lakes. This idea holds for any type of attacker whatsoever. Never assume the enemy is somehow inherently incapable of doing something you can do!" Walker lowered his voice after that with "After the Great Fire of London, the French decided to join the war, sending eight ships to meet with a small Dutch squadron of six ships to head to the Netherlands. En route they encountered an English fleet of 25 ships and were pummelled, with one new French heavy ship being captured after mistaking the English for friendlies after being separated in the poor weather. Despite successes in battle, over the winter, the English simply began to run out of money, and Charles began negotiations, while secretly agreeing with the French for the French to attack the Spanish Netherlands. He went to war hoping to bolster his authority, but had lost it instead."

"The heavy ships were laid up at Chatham on the Medway River, south of the Thames with a partly shared estuary, that is an entrance into the sea. The English defensive command chain was so muddled that despite the attack taking five days to work their way up the river to Chatham, no action was taken by the demoralized and long-unpaid soldiers, not that England had a large land army. Three capital ships, the largest and most expensive ships in the fleet, were burnt, and the largest, the fleet flagship, was seized by the Dutch as a trophy. Ten other heavy ships were also destroyed, some scuttled by the English to try to block the channel… if they'd have the competence to do so during the FIVE DAYS the Dutch took to get up the river… pah! Well, at least they managed to save the dockyards, which would have cost English naval power a whole generation to recover, but even that was mostly by chance as the Dutch were expecting resistance to escalate and did not want to risk being cut off."

"An error, then? To not destroy the enemy's means of production when they are so close?" Ellen got a vigorous nod in response.

"Yes! In North America, the English occupied New Netherlands, later renamed New York, and the Dutch got Suriname, despite the English recapturing it, because the treaty of Breda was a uti possidetis treaty, for positions held on 31 July, except Acadia which was to be returned to France by the English. This quick and dirty 'what you have is what you get' solution in the broad strokes, not counting the English Caribbean Fleet trouncing the Dutch and French and occupying their minor Caribbean islands, benefitted both sides, as the Dutch were alarmed by the French advance in the War of Devolution. England, Sweden and the Dutch Republic would join in the Triple Alliance in 1668 to pressure Louis XIV to give most of the Spanish Netherlands and Free County of Burgundy back to Spain."

"Louis was increasing persecution of Huguenots in France around this time. Intermarriage of past Huguenot refugees into the English populace was already notable enough by this time in making them loyal and encouraging more Huguenots to migrate to England, bringing talent, skills and wealth. Thus, Charles II had one of his occasional good ideas, this time on the subject of how to encourage the North American fur trade to go through the English instead of the French. The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in 1670 by royal charter, in which he explicitly encouraged men on the frontier with few other prospects to consider marrying Natives, to establish and improve commercial and other ties. If the French were using such ties and the English weren't, then the fur trade would be steered toward the French, and that was unacceptable."

"The king conspired with the French to attack the Dutch in 1672, but with repeated tactical and strategic defeats or draws near home, Parliament feared it was a plot to make England Roman Catholic and forced him to abandon the relatively fruitless war. Due to the French invasion seriously pressing them monetarily, the Dutch elected to cede their half of St. Martin and confirm New York as English instead of paying 2 million guilders to get the English to exit the war and confirm Suriname being Dutch. Their Caribbean possessions besides Suriname were minor and just about indefensible compared to the English Caribbean Fleet anyhow, and the French own the other half of St. Martin so the Dutch no doubt wanted to generate border friction in the Caribbean."

"In 1688, stadtholder William III and his wife overthrew his father-in-law James II of England in the Glorious Revolution, one of the relatively uncommon occasions where England was successfully invaded from continental Europe. However, this was basically at the invitation of most of Parliament, which was concerned with the current king's Catholicism and his new son potentially starting a Catholic dynasty. The idea of displacing his 26-year-old daughter from being heir presumptive was highly unpopular. This led to Catholics being persecuted in Britain, not being permitted to vote, the monarch not being allowed to be or marry Catholic, and so on. That is, as you have learnt, inefficient in exploitation of talent, much as the French Huguenot persecution led to many brilliant people leaving France due to various often-false accusations. Still, the Glorious Revolution led to the integration and cooperation of Dutch and English navies, leading to the modern dominance of Britain as a maritime power."

"In those same years the Nine Years' War began, the first war that could be considered a global war. The Grand Alliance of England, Scotland, Spain, Savoy, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Dutch fought France to a standstill. The war was ruinous, armies having expanded from an average of about 25,000 to 100,000 since the middle of the 17th century. This is simply unaffordable during the campaign and planting seasons of May to October until labour-saving devices elevate productivity far enough to sustain so many men off at war. Armies were expected to support themselves in the field by taxing locals, a comically stupid idea with such large forces, and getting these 'contributions' was seen as more important than pursuing a defeated enemy army to destroy it!" Walker snorted at the absurdity, pausing for his student's sake.

"During this war, the flintlock musket was introduced, much more reliable and accurate than matchlocks. This would take time to implement, compared to the more important innovation of the socket bayonet, which went around the gun's front compared to the plug-bayonet that was jammed down the muzzle, and allowed the elimination of pikes. At sea, since it was hard for wooden ships to sink each other with the cannons of the time, numbers was the important factor. Once the Allies had clear superiority of numbers, the French fleet stayed in port and occupied the enemy attention simply by existing. Its main role was to protect the French coast from invasion, and deterrent was enough for that. They did not protect Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia, nor the Caribbean islands, all of which the English occupied. The maritime powers out-built the French at more than four to one in rated warships during this war." He could perhaps have been more ham-fisted in shoving logistics down the girl's throat, but that would be actually difficult. "The land battles are far enough from the scales of offense and defence you will be encountering that we will discuss them later. For England, the main gain was claiming the Mosquito Coast from Spain in 1687, which the Spanish turned a blind eye to due to being allies in war and not really using the region anyhow."

"The next major war was the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714. The Hapsburgs had inbred so much with their cousins, due to the hubris of Man making them think the rules of breeding men are different from horses or other animals and that inbreeding is not dangerous, that Charles II of Spain was deformed and sickly. He was described as, and I quote, 'short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35, always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live'. He died childless in 1700, with his closest relatives the Austrian Hapsburgs and French Bourbons, either of which inheriting the Spanish Empire would destroy the European balance of power. Louis XIV's grandson Philip V was proclaimed king, and due to disputes over inheritance with France, war broke out. We'll discuss the battles later due to their scales."

"The end result, the Treaty of Utrecht, favoured Britain the most. The Dutch, French and Spanish were exhausted and their fleets gravely reduced while the British left the war with the strongest fleets in the world. Gibraltar and Puerto Rico were ceded to Britain by Spain, due to France capturing Menorca from the British in such time that it could not be demanded as part of the price for British aid to the Spanish throne, but the much larger and British-occupied Puerto Rico could be. The Spanish Netherlands and their Italian possessions were ceded to Austria, and Sicily was given to Savoy. However, the Bourbons rapidly centralized power in Spain and took back much of Italy later. France ceded their claims on Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay Company's territories, and outright ceded Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia, to Britain. Due to their advantages at sea, Britain made a minor revision to the French territorial offer lines, which aroused much laughter at the negotiations. The British moved the proposed border up from present-day Fort Lawrence to a line from the first crook of the Petitcodiac River due northeast to a small bay off Northumberland Strait. This area is a bit short of 800 square miles, and was comically small on the maps. Many believe this was out of spite for not being able to demand Menorca, even though Gibraltar already provided significant control in the Western Mediterranean." He pulled out a map of the region, and pointed the area in question out.

"Most of the participants also participated to varying degrees in the Great Northern War afterward, helping Russia become a serious European power for the first time and resulting in the decline of the Swedish Empire. However, they mostly either soon pulled out or did not contribute much, for the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out formally in 1718, though fighting had begun in 1717, and lasted until 1720. Britain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch and Savoy mostly managed to contain the Spanish attempt to expand. Savoy gained Sardinia, Austria gained Sicily, and French control of the Antilles island of Dominica was acknowledged by Spain. Britain had not colonized the island due to commercial interests wanting to keep the sugar supply low enough for prices to remain high, coupled with lack of government funding for colonization. This war is curious because it came during 1716 to 1731, when Britain and France were formally and unusually allied."

"During the War of the Quadruple Alliance, British ships repulsed an attempted attack on Nassau in the Bahamas, and supported the French in attacking and destroying the Spanish city of Pensacola in Florida. Gibraltar was made rather larger by a land cession from Spain at the peace, after numerous successful descents on the Spanish coast demonstrated their need to yield while they could without losing too much. The British desire for Menorca would only be satisfied at the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727-1729, when a close blockade of Spain itself and harassment of Spanish shipping in the Caribbean forced the Spanish to cede Menorca in exchange for supporting their queen's claim on Parma, which would be pressed a decade and a bit later, when the War of Jenkins' Ear led into the War of Austrian Succession, where France ended up in status quo, but Spain gained Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla duchies, trading the swampy and generally rather useless East Florida for formal return of rich, productive Cuba after Britain occupied Havana in that war."

"And then… and then there was the French and Indian War, leading to the Seven Years' War, the first true global conflict. We will overview it on the morrow."


XX


A/N: Anyone screaming foul at the weather at the Battle of the Kentish Knock should be reminded that the butterflies propagating since 1535 means I can make the weather whatever the hell I want as long as it is reasonable for the area. Having the wind shift a couple hours later is not a big change! Income from Iceland, and subsequent snowballing with riches from Caribbean colonies, along with not buying some goods Iceland supplies from abroad, results in a few more ships at select places, and slightly better sailors, which means slightly shifting the balance of battles too, so… ass-kicking ensues.

Even then, I only gave Blake the highest Wikipedia claim from the OTL Battle of Portland (8-12 warships and 20-40 merchantmen captured), despite the fact that pressing the attack home when he had far better ammunition stocks than the demoralized and buckling enemy should have been a colossal STOMP.


Does his steering Ellen onto these conclusions sound reasonable? Because if she starts coming across as too smart then you can perhaps extend the "little while" she takes to come up with these conclusions that Walker is steering her onto. On the other hand, if you can expect a 10-year-old (i.e. giving her an IQ of about 150) to instantly grasp these then the "little while" could be as short as a few seconds of "Hmm, I think...".

You can tell I have no clue how intelligent kids are supposed to be, but hate how even teens are infantilized in today's media.

 

[DarknessSmiles]

If your goal is to tell a history of english warfare, you are accomplishing it.

If your goal is to lay out conclusions that ellen is expected to reach from historical battles, then these chapters should be 1k. Not nearly 10k.

There is such a thing as too much detail and this is supposed to be a history record. Not a lecture series.

 

[Guardian54]

I strongly, strongly recommend that you keep the crossovers to the absolute minimum. Halo or mass effect only. None of the magic crap. I think that is where you really started to go downhill. It just does not fit well.

Click to shrink...

Problem is that some RA techs are impossible without some radically different laws of physics, which, to me, basically means we have to Apply Psionics (aka "Magic")

If your goal is to tell a history of english warfare, you are accomplishing it.

If your goal is to lay out conclusions that ellen is expected to reach from historical battles, then these chapters should be 1k. Not nearly 10k.

There is such a thing as too much detail and this is supposed to be a history record. Not a lecture series.

Click to shrink...

Actually, my goal is both, so I am indeed accomplishing it.
Priority 1: Make sure everyone understands EXACTLY how Britain and later on Greater Canada ends up with a Caribbean pond (note that Danish Virgin Islands will never happen, thus no USVI), the concluding acquisitions of which will be depicted later.
Priority 2: Establish Ellen Smith as intelligent and competent enough that to expect great deeds from a MAN of such wealthy birth and natural aptitude would be only rational... As is, well, in this time period... well, good luck to the silly girl. (Warning: Irony) Yes, she's being spoon-fed a bit for now, but hey, she's still young and has time before the back cover text of Volume 0-1.
Priority 3: Quietly show Kane Walker teaching Ellen aggression, which is to try to deal with the "demure femininity" indoctrination society has been putting on her (even though her mother was a wild child and therefore is clearly spoiling her rotten by being too indulgent of her unladylike ways).
However, I'll still take that into advisory while revising things.
I'm considering a serious UNPOSTED dissection of individual battles to see how I can rationally shoehorn somewhat OTL results into the wars that have been glossed over, or whether I should have had the British get away with demanding a bit more, while still not triggering a serious Coalition war against them.

Perhaps Act 1 where she's studying history should be 6 chapters instead of the aimed-for 5 so that each chapter is 3000-6000 words?
Regardless, this is Walker's first time taking on a serious long-term disciple in a... very long time, so what's done is done. He monologued a bit too much today, he'll be more careful in the future.

The problem is that I don't want (this is exaggerated) "HEY IDIOT MARTINIQUE WAS FRENCH, NOT THIS 'MARTINI' BULLSHIT!!!111!!! SoD BROKEN GIVE HISTORICAL BACKSTORY AS JUSTIFICATION OR GTFO!!11!!" raegmode stuff when the time Britain decides to dump its Caribbean colonies comes.

A careful reader can probably see that the British are going to be denying the Caribbean to almost everyone else.
A very careful (read: somewhat deranged Wikipedia fanatic) reader can also probably see that Britain is slightly better off in basically every battle since the 1580s.

Even Kane Walker has realized that he's perhaps mashing too much of the tactical lessons he'll be teaching later (which we will not see) into the short history overview that he's using to drive home the "LOGISTICS!" and "EFFICIENCY!" ideologies into her head, but he's already close enough to the present day that he didn't try to shorten things too much.

That being said, Ellen's not blind or deaf and does see/hear he's a bit overenthusiastic about making absolutely sure she understands logistics win in both war and peace.

We're about to get to the good part, take a bit of time for settlement pattern theorycrafting, and then... War Was Beginning.

 

[DarknessSmiles]

Problem is that some RA techs are impossible without some radically different laws of physics, which, to me, basically means we have to Apply Psionics (aka "Magic")

Click to shrink...

you can very, very easily include psionics without crossovers.

treat it like its done in B5 or XCOM. something that is inherent to humans but that we are just evolving enough to use. its pseudoscience. make shit up.

my point was to keep Harry Potter and the like out. not to exclude super tech or yuri's revenge.

Priority 1: Make sure everyone understands EXACTLY how Britain and later on Greater Canada ends up with a Caribbean pond (note that Danish Virgin Islands will never happen, thus no USVI), the concluding acquisitions of which will be depicted later.
Priority 2: Establish Ellen Smith as intelligent and competent enough that to expect great deeds from a MAN of such wealthy birth and natural aptitude would be only rational... As is, well, in this time period... well, good luck to the silly girl. (Warning: Irony) Yes, she's being spoon-fed a bit for now, but hey, she's still young and has time before the back cover text of Volume 0-1.
Priority 3: Quietly show Kane Walker teaching Ellen aggression, which is to try to deal with the "demure femininity" indoctrination society has been putting on her (even though her mother was a wild child and therefore is clearly spoiling her rotten by being too indulgent of her unladylike ways).
However, I'll still take that into advisory while revising things.

Click to shrink...

1) and that could easily be accomplished by paragraphs rather than dissertations. I am college educated (BS in computer engineering) and i dont have a damn clue about the minute differences that you are referencing have changed. to 99+% of your readers it does not matter. In fact, its largely boring.
2+3) you dont need to spend 5k words to show this, let alone over 15k, and it seems like its only begun.

if your goal is to tell a story, this is not how you go about it. this is a history book.

 

[Guardian54]

you can very, very easily include psionics without crossovers.
treat it like its done in B5 or XCOM. something that is inherent to humans but that we are just evolving enough to use. its pseudoscience. make shit up.
my point was to keep Harry Potter and the like out. not to exclude super tech or yuri's revenge.

1) and that could easily be accomplished by paragraphs rather than dissertations. I am college educated (BS in computer engineering) and i dont have a damn clue about the minute differences that you are referencing have changed. to 99+% of your readers it does not matter. In fact, its largely boring.
2+3) you dont need to spend 5k words to show this, let alone over 15k, and it seems like its only begun.
if your goal is to tell a story, this is not how you go about it. this is a history book.

Click to shrink...

1. I think I can generally do this, but it will in some cases appear to have the serial numbers filed off. That is irrelevant for the next 200 years in-story though.

2. Thank you, you have just solved my issues with this chapter. I've changed the threadmark. Having Chapter 3 be a "epic tale of details to get readers pumped for ACTION" would be enough, I'll go remove most of the monologuing for the Standard Edition Chapter 4 and post that (see post below). It should read rather smoother.

The Uncensored Edition is intended to be for Detail Maniacs or, in later entries, people who want more gory details (which may result in me pointing people at QQ once the bloodshed becomes too great for SV).

 

[Guardian54]

A/N: Pared it down and polished it a bit more thanks to reader feedback to just over half the original word count, without losing any lines from Ellen. Anyone who wants to look at the nuances of major naval battles can read the Uncensored Edition if they like.


XX


Chapter 1-4: Into the Americas


The next time they had time to discuss history, Walker started with the later events of the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585-1604, after the Armada, and the sound thrashing delivered to Spain. "Due to the great victory against the Spanish Armada and the Icelanders still remembering Elizabeth sending admittedly token aid after the relatively minor 1580 eruption at Katla and somewhere near Eldey in 1582, there was much enthusiasm there for serving in the Navy. This availability of fishermen, the traditional source of naval manpower, combined with the survivors of the previous campaign, meant the English Armada assembled in 1589 was almost a standing navy. The funds spared from the efforts of attracting new recruits and of equipping a large army allowed the fleet to purchase some siege guns nearly at the last moment, which helped greatly. The expedition relied on ambitious plans seeking a repeat of Drake's raid on Cadiz two years ago, which was of course unrealistic. However, Elizabeth had had enough exposure over the years to the Prior of Crato who she'd backed in the War of the Portuguese Succession to realize that he lacked the charisma and connections to back his claims. Portugal was very unlikely to rise for him, and thus the main goal of the Armada was smashing the Spanish navy."

Now Walker began pointing to the map. "The winds and currents of the Bay of Biscay led Drake to fear being embayed, meaning trapped in the bay. He did not wish to attack San Sebastian near the French border, nor Santander. However, the size of his fleet and observing that the Spanish probably used those ports for most of the Armada's survivors meant that Drake decided that venturing to attack Santander and then raid that half of the Iberian coast westward would be worth the risk… if he could draw away the Spanish army forces first."

"Drake himself led a third of the fleet to head out first to assault Coruna, more or less on the northwest corner of Iberia. He believed the Spanish would pull troops from Santander instead of Portugal to relieve a siege, so he captured some Spanish warships, sacked the lower city, and half-heartedly sieged the upper city until reinforcements were spotted coming from the east on the twelfth day. The other parts of the English Armada had set out two weeks after Drake's force. A two-force manoeuvre, though very difficult to coordinate, had been so effective battling the Spanish Armada that Drake thought trying it again might be worthwhile. Any more moving parts or a third go would be far too dangerous though. This main force hit Santander's greatly reduced garrison thirteen days after Drake arrived at Coruna, pushing hard against the expectedly low resistance. While they did not have enough siege guns to reduce the citadels, nor the men to storm them, they were able to lay siege well enough to prevent a sally while wresting significant control over the harbour area. This led to the capture of many of Spain's remaining galleons and some lesser ships, and most other ships present were burnt by either side. If they had not found the garrison depleted, they would have shelled the port from long range and sent fireships in to burn as much as they could instead of trying to capture ships."

"Unfortunately, the later steps of the English Armada's expedition did not go so well. Drake was an excellent naval commander, but by sieging Coruna for so long in the name of crippling Spanish naval power, the Spanish had time to reinforce the Portuguese coast defences, which meant trying to attack Lisbon and stir up a Portuguese uprising against the Spanish failed. The adventure was inconclusive but had at least badly smashed the Spanish fleet and laid the path for greater success of English privateers in the coming years."

"Now, we can talk about that in more detail later, but the naval war ended up going Britain's way overall, despite Spain reforming its navy and implementing reasonably effective convoy practices. Convoys are ships sailing in groups for mutual protection, often with dedicated warship escorts. The land war was dragged out so much and the naval war so draining that Spain simply ran out of money. The main Spanish treasure fleets had been generally kept safe except a couple of major fleet actions, but other Spanish merchants often didn't even dare leave port with how successful English privateers were… At the end of the war in 1604, England obtained Barbados from Spain, though there were plans to intrude into the Spanish-claimed Lesser Antilles anyhow barring catastrophic loss of the war, plans which were pushed ahead by the success." There was of course plenty of map pointing during this highly abbreviated summary "So, summarize the lessons of the war for me."

It took Ellen a while to think it through and formulate the appropriate phrasing "If a knock-out blow against the enemy is impossible or won't be favourable, you should seek to exhaust the enemy and deny him the chance to land a knock-out blow. A distraction can be useful in drawing away the enemy troops, but only if you hold the full initiative and have enough advantages to not get surprised, and don't rely on more than two major moving elements at a time."

"Yes, economics and logistics, and their mixture to provide the ability to keep materials flowing, the populace fed and reasonably content, the troops supplied, and so on, are crucial to the art of war. However, England was also horribly exhausted by the war, despite winning. To drag a war out, to strangle your enemy slowly while others land the body blows, the Dutch and French in this case, is hugely costly. And that cost, the exhaustion, makes for vulnerability… except in one particular case, when everyone else is too occupied or too weakened themselves. It is said that the power to defeat the enemy depends on the enemy, while the power to make ourselves undefeatable lies with ourselves." It would be much later that Ellen would learn that Walker was very likely referring to the ancient Chinese text, the Art of War. This was odd given how isolationist China was.

"The enormous profits from privateering Barbados to be quickly developed, the island getting colony status on paper right away in 1604 in preparation for a major land grab in the Antilles. Spain claimed the Antilles, but had not colonized the minor islands, and did not have the funds to colonize them now nor the desire to export people, preferring to keeping the manpower on hand to rebuild their economy. While Barbados was being built up, Newfoundland formally became a colony in 1606, with Bermuda and Virginia following in 1607. The sailors and soldiers of the last war needed someplace to retire to, and since Elizabeth had paid them enough to keep them from dying in squalor, James I took advantage of having settlers well able to defend themselves against Native attacks, and well able to do most of the job of getting there in the first place too. Thus Barbados was thus ready to be used as a launch point for further colonization by 1610. St. Lucia was colonized in 1610, St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 1612, and Granada in 1615. James' reign had been stabilized by successful foiling of the Gunpowder Plot and the consequences, reassuring Protestants that James would back them."

"England's next major war was again with Spain, declared by Charles I in 1625, as James was a pacifist and refused to declare war. In fact, James poured funds into building colonies as he wanted to spend money with intentions other than war. Martini, renamed from the Spanish 'Matinino' while trying to not match the name of St. Martin or San Martin, became a colony in 1623 near the existing colonies. St. Kitts and Nevis also gained colony status in 1623. In 1624, Charles ordered an expedition against Cadiz, for Spanish New World silver and to hit Spain's lines of communication. This didn't go well, having to drag 500 drunk men back because Lord Buckingham refused to buy enough small beer or water supplies—small beer was much safer to drink than fresh water stored in a barrel at sea—is perhaps not the most graceful of evacuations after landing on a hostile shore. The costly lack of smashing success was not investigated by Charles and he eventually dissolved Parliament instead of letting his favourite, Buckingham, be impeached. This eventually helped lead to the English Civil War." Walker sounded somewhat bitter for whatever reason.

"After the capture of a Spanish treasure fleet by the Dutch in 1628 and the smashing of a major Spanish fleet by the English Caribbean Fleet in 1629, the Spanish sought a treaty, especially once the War of the Mantuan Succession began. The 1626 attempt by the Spanish to dislodge the English colonies had failed spectacularly in assaulting Barbados, and the new fleet of 1629 was also staved off, so Spain wanted out. It was a quick status quo ante bellum treaty, no territorial changes compared to before the war. The war had been painfully expensive for England, while being but a minor a side show for Spain and France. The cost and other problems contributed to the Monarchy's disputes with Parliament, causing the English Civil War."

Walker waited for Ellen's notes to catch up before handwaving a great deal of history for now "The English Civil War and immediately related wars are rather complex and we can talk about them in great detail later. Suffice it to say that the Parliamentarians won and the English 'Commonwealth' was established under Oliver Cromwell's dictatorship. However, during this timeframe, colonization continued. St. Croix in the Virgin Islands was colonized in 1625, Antigua and Barbuda in 1632, St. John, VI in 1633, St. Thomas in 1635, Tortola in 1637, the Bahamas in 1648 and Anguilla in 1650. You may notice with the dates that these were generally before the war, or for the last two, colonial efforts launched from other Caribbean islands during lulls in the fighting with support from one or both sides in the three main bouts of fighting."

"England fought a series of wars in the years immediately after the Civil War ended in 1651. The First Anglo-Dutch War for example was from 1652 to 1654, followed immediately by another Anglo-Spanish War. After several major battles, the English wrested control of the North Sea from the Dutch and enforced a blockade of their coast. After another battle and a lull in the blockade, they renewed it as it seemed the Dutch were unyielding to their demands. The Dutch economy quickly collapsed and they were unable to feed their dense urban populations. They relied on Baltic wheat imports, and did not export enough people to the colonies to have food independence. That is why blockade was very effective against them."

"A blockade would still be very bad for us though. We sell things to Europe that Europe wants, like wood and food, in exchange for getting things we have a hard time making for ourselves…" Ellen raised the counterpoint he'd manoeuvred her into bringing up. While children could often see things adults did not, they just as often tended to overestimate their own insights as unique and special… If one did not encourage them to make such realizations, they would become thoughtless over time. If one encouraged them too much, they would become arrogant. Ah, but raising children was a delicate thing… hence why Walker had never tried it.

"That is why control of the sea is so crucial in any war. Forget the idea of a short war, any war is a contest of logistics, of economy, of the ability to out-build and outlast your opponent. In the end, Cromwell acknowledged the Dutch no longer had any desire for union, and demanded the ABC islands, off the coast of South America, in addition to the island of Run in the East Indies. William, Prince of Orange, would also be excluded from government appointments by the Act of Seclusion at Cromwell's demand. Due to soaring food prices from the renewed blockade and the Dutch position being even worse than before the breaking of the initial blockade, the Dutch were forced to accept these terms. Cromwell's anger in this case had been directed in a productive way, gaining valuable territory instead of seeking pointless minor humiliations."

Walker pointed these out on the map with a small, mysterious smile. "From west to east here, the ABC islands are Aruba, Curacao… that's with a C… and Bonaire, no that's not from the French for 'good air'… all three are good for salt harvesting, with Curacao and Bonaire offering ability to do some localized agriculture, such as the dyewoods that the Dutch cultivated on Bonaire. Salt is essential for human life, wars have been fought over salt in various civilizations, and in China there is a governmental salt monopoly to, in theory, ensure its steady distribution to reduce unrest. If you go north to establish your own power base, sea salt will be too hard to harvest, so you will have to mine or import it!"

"Then there was the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654-1660, which England won. The war officially ended in 1660 with the Spanish formally ceding Dunkirk and Mardyck, but by 1670 they accepted that England would not return Jamaica or the Cayman Islands. However, the Spanish decision to use Dutch shipping to replace their own lost shipping and the effect of Spanish privateers on English merchant ships set the stage for the Second Anglo-Dutch War of 1665 to 1667."

"King Charles II sold Dunkirk and Mardyck to France in 1662, but under 300,000 English pounds of the promised half million was ever paid by France. He had problems even collecting taxes, so stupidly sought a popular war to bolster his authority, as if wars did not cost money!" Walker laid out the crushing defeat given to the Dutch at Lowestoft, and the English idiocy at Bergen, before suddenly realizing he was pretty much monologuing. This was great when one was indoctrinating an underling, but undesirable when trying to teach an actual student. "How might the English have done better?"

This took a while for Ellen after the obvious "Do not violently provoke neutral parties when there are any plausible alternatives or a chance they will agree to side with you?" Her other opinions summarized (due to childhood vocabulary limitations) to "If you absolutely have to attack the enemy at a disadvantage, or when your advantages can't be used, create new ones like sending infiltrators ashore to sabotage the Dutch gun battery or find a way to actually use the old ones, such as attacking in waves, of course only starting the attack once the Danes notified them that they would let it happen. They should have rammed at least two fireships into the Dutch defensive line after prompting them to form up, like with the Spanish Armada at Gravelines. When adverse weather conditions or other unpredictable events clearly greatly disrupt the enemy, seek immediate battle with them, either to intimidate them into thinking you are still well organized, or to press an advantage in organization and tear the enemy apart piece by piece."

"But Sir Thomas Teddiman, in charge of the attack, did not have the weather gauge, which is generally needed to use fireships effectively, and decided against use of fireships for fear of risking the cargo." Walker raised a counterpoint to some of these ideas, then tested the waters on the other things he had taught her, besides history. "Admittedly, Teddiman did not place his flagship in the line, despite it being by far the most powerful ship he had, so he was perhaps less than brilliant…"

Ellen's response summarized to "Cowardice! He knew he was risking his entire nation's ability to wage war! That's treasonous unless he proves the ship was too deep or too ungainly to fit in the line! The attack should have waited for Danish permission until news of de Ruyter returning to the Dutch homeland was received, or at the earliest date with both permission and the weather gauge. Fireships burning the valuable cargos are nothing compared to failing to break through and the treasure going to the enemy, better deny it to the enemy than fail utterly."

"While we are merely theory-crafting, I see you seem to have taken well to my tactical lessons. Time will tell how well you can apply these lessons." Walker said before bringing the history lecture back on track, mentally smacking himself about how he had been mixing the lessons too much. The details could wait for later, he'd give her the quick overview of history for now. She was still young, there was still time before she would embark on the path he planned for her. "Afterward, there were some wins and losses in the Channel, which cost too much for England to afford to repair. They could not even afford a close blockade!" He outlined the vents of Holmes' Bonfire for her, then asked "What did the Dutch do wrong?"

It took a few moments for Ellen to work through "Not enough defences on this exposed anchorage… they thought it safe… they depended on terrain to stop the enemy. Terrain they themselves could clearly navigate around. The Dutch assumed the English could not possibly know the area anything like how the Dutch did."

"Yes, anywhere a boat can go can be attacked from the water, even the shores of mountaintop lakes. This idea holds for any type of attacker whatsoever. Never assume the enemy is somehow inherently incapable of doing something you can do!" Walker lowered his voice after that with the Battle of Dungeness and Raid on the Medway, wher ehe noted the failure to destroy the dockyards.

"An error, then? To not destroy the enemy's means of production when they are so close?" Ellen got a vigorous nod in response.

"Yes! In North America, the English occupied New Netherlands, later renamed New York, and the Dutch got Suriname, despite the English recapturing it, because the treaty of Breda was a uti possidetis treaty, for positions held on 31 July, except Acadia which was to be returned to France by the English. This quick and dirty 'what you have is what you get' solution in the broad strokes, not counting the English Caribbean Fleet trouncing the Dutch and French and occupying their minor Caribbean islands, benefitted both sides, as the Dutch were alarmed by the French advance in the War of Devolution. England, Sweden and the Dutch Republic would join in the Triple Alliance in 1668 to pressure Louis XIV to give most of the Spanish Netherlands and Free County of Burgundy back to Spain."

"Louis was increasing persecution of Huguenots in France around this time. Intermarriage of past Huguenot refugees into the English populace was already notable enough by this time in making them loyal and encouraging more Huguenots to migrate to England, bringing talent, skills and wealth. Thus, Charles II had one of his occasional good ideas, this time on the subject of how to encourage the North American fur trade to go through the English instead of the French. The Hudson's Bay Company was incorporated in 1670 by royal charter, in which he explicitly encouraged men on the frontier with few other prospects to consider marrying Natives, to establish and improve commercial and other ties. Since the French were using such ties, the fur trade would be steered toward the French unless the English did the same, therefore they would have to emulate the French."

"The king conspired with the French for the Third Anglo-Dutch War in 1672-1674. Eventually, Parliament made him give it up due to worrying he was going to use it to make England Catholic. Due to the French invasion seriously pressing them monetarily, the Dutch elected to cede their half of St. Martin and confirm New York as English instead of paying 2 million guilders to get the English to exit the war and confirm Suriname being Dutch. Their Caribbean possessions besides Suriname were minor and just about indefensible compared to the English Caribbean Fleet anyhow, and the French own the other half of St. Martin so the Dutch no doubt wanted to generate border friction in the Caribbean."

"In 1688, stadtholder William III and his wife overthrew his father-in-law James II of England in the Glorious Revolution, one of the relatively uncommon occasions where England was successfully invaded from continental Europe. However, this was basically at the invitation of most of Parliament, which was concerned with James's potentially starting a Catholic dynasty. The Glorious Revolution led to Catholics being persecuted in Britain, not being permitted to vote, the monarch not being allowed to be or marry Catholic, and so on. That is, as you have learnt, inefficient in exploitation of talent, much as the French Huguenot persecution led to many brilliant people leaving France due to various often-false accusations. Still, the Glorious Revolution led to the integration and cooperation of Dutch and English navies, leading to the modern dominance of Britain as a maritime power."

"In those same years the Nine Years' War began, the first war that could be considered a global war. The Grand Alliance of England, Scotland, Spain, Savoy, Sweden, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Dutch fought France to a standstill. The war was ruinous, armies having expanded from an average of about 25,000 to 100,000 since the middle of the 17th century. This is simply unaffordable during the campaign and planting seasons of May to October until labour-saving devices elevate productivity far enough to sustain so many men off at war. Armies were expected to support themselves in the field by taxing locals, a comically stupid idea with such large forces, and getting these 'contributions' was seen as more important than pursuing a defeated enemy army to destroy it!" Walker snorted at the absurdity, pausing for his student's sake. Then he noted the introduction of the flintlock, the socket bayonet, and the English navy introducing the ship's wheel. The French he noted as behaving as a fleet-in-being, and not defending "…Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia, nor the Caribbean islands, all of which the English occupied. The maritime powers out-built the French at more than four to one in rated warships during this war." He could perhaps have been more ham-fisted in shoving logistics down the girl's throat, but that would be actually difficult. "The land battles are far enough from the scales of offense and defence you will be encountering that we will discuss them later. For England, the main gain was claiming the Mosquito Coast from Spain in 1687, which the Spanish turned a blind eye to due to being allies in war and not really using the region anyhow."

"The next major war was the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714. The Hapsburgs had inbred so much with their cousins, due to the hubris of Man making them think the rules of breeding men are different from horses or other animals and that inbreeding is not dangerous, that Charles II of Spain was deformed and sickly. He was described as, and I quote, 'short, lame, epileptic, senile and completely bald before 35, always on the verge of death but repeatedly baffling Christendom by continuing to live'. He died childless in 1700, with his closest relatives the Austrian Hapsburgs and French Bourbons, either of which inheriting the Spanish Empire would destroy the European balance of power. Louis XIV's grandson Philip V was proclaimed king, and due to disputes over inheritance with France, war broke out. We'll discuss the battles later due to their scales." He paused for a moment as she'd put her pen down and was now looking at him with eyebrows raised.

"Right, so no marrying cousins… until how many generations, sir? Isn't everyone related to some degree?"

Walker grinned at the insight. "You'll be able to figure out how much is inherited from each parent once we get working on math, you'll be able to calculate it with the knowledge that some men or women are more prone to having sons or daughters."

"The end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the Treaty of Utrecht, favoured Britain the most. The Dutch, French and Spanish were exhausted and their fleets gravely reduced while the British left the war with the strongest fleets in the world. Gibraltar and Puerto Rico were ceded to Britain by Spain, due to France capturing Menorca from the British in such time that it could not be demanded as part of the price for British aid to the Spanish throne, but the much larger and British-occupied Puerto Rico could be. The Spanish Netherlands and their Italian possessions were ceded to Austria, and Sicily was given to Savoy. However, the Bourbons rapidly centralized power in Spain and took back much of Italy later. France ceded their claims on Newfoundland and the Hudson Bay Company's territories, and outright ceded Acadia, present-day Nova Scotia, to Britain. Due to their advantages at sea, Britain made a minor revision to the French territorial offer lines, which aroused much laughter at the negotiations." He pulled out a map of the region, and pointed the area in question out. "The British moved the proposed border up from present-day Fort Lawrence to a line from the first crook of the Petitcodiac River due northeast to a small bay off Northumberland Strait. This area is a bit short of 800 square miles, and was comically small on the maps. Many believe this was out of spite for not being able to demand Menorca, even though Gibraltar already provided significant control in the Western Mediterranean."

"Most of the participants also participated to varying degrees in the Great Northern War afterward, helping Russia become a serious European power for the first time and resulting in the decline of the Swedish Empire. However, they mostly either soon pulled out or did not contribute much, for the War of the Quadruple Alliance broke out formally in 1718, though fighting had begun in 1717, and lasted until 1720. Britain, the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch and Savoy managed to contain Spanish ambitions in Italy. Savoy gained Sardinia, Austria gained Sicily, and French control of the Antilles island of Dominica was acknowledged by Spain. Britain had not colonized the island due to commercial interests wanting to keep the sugar supply low enough for prices to remain high, coupled with lack of government funding for colonization. This war is curious because it came during 1716 to 1731, when Britain and France were formally and unusually allied."

"At the end of the War of the Quadruple Alliance, Gibraltar was made rather larger by a small land cession from Spain at the peace, after numerous successful descents on the Spanish coast demonstrated their need to yield while they could without losing too much. The British desire for Menorca would only be satisfied at the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727-1729, when a close blockade of Spain itself and harassment of Spanish shipping in the Caribbean forced the Spanish to cede Menorca in exchange for supporting their queen's claim on Parma, which would be pressed a decade and a bit later, when the War of Jenkins' Ear led into the War of Austrian Succession, where Spain gained Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla duchies, though it had to trade the swampy and generally rather useless East Florida for formal return of Cuba after Britain occupied Havana in that war. Though on opposite sides, Britain still upheld its prior treaty obligation to find the Spanish claiming Parma acceptable. The final settlement caused some unrest in these Thirteen Colonies, for Louisburg and the rest of Cape Breton Island, known then as Ile Royale, were returned to France in exchange for Madras in India. The colonial militias felt their hard work to get rid of a nest of privateers was thrown away."

"And then… and then there was the French and Indian War, leading to the Seven Years' War, the first truly global conflict. We will overview it on the morrow."


XX


A/N: Does his steering Ellen onto these conclusions sound reasonable? Because if she starts coming across as too smart then you can perhaps extend the "little while" she takes to come up with these conclusions that Walker is steering her onto. On the other hand, if you can expect a 10-year-old (i.e. giving her an IQ of about 150) to instantly grasp these then the "little while" could be as short as a few seconds of "Hmm, I think...".

You can tell I have no clue how intelligent kids are supposed to be, but hate how even teens are infantilized in today's media.

 

[Miner249er]

A/N: Does his steering Ellen onto these conclusions sound reasonable? Because if she starts coming across as too smart then you can perhaps extend the "little while" she takes to come up with these conclusions that Walker is steering her onto. On the other hand, if you can expect a 10-year-old (i.e. giving her an IQ of about 150) to instantly grasp these then the "little while" could be as short as a few seconds of "Hmm, I think...".

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure.

 

[Guardian54]

@Arimai since you brought this up on an SB thread, British North America was consistently gravely outnumbered by the USA until well after Canada formed, namely in the late 20th century when the population gap was less than 2:1. There is simply no way to win (or even legally start) an offensive war and BNA knows that's the price of Britain's aegis.

The arable land area (i.e. not too damned cold) ratio is also not even 1:1, even at Greater Canada's maximum extent.

Mexico was picked up as a client state just before WWI when a supposed humanitarian relief mission (due to the Mexican Revolution) evolved to gain huge influence over Mexico, which can be seen as a form of puppeting.

BNA/Canada and the US have been at peace and with close economic ties for nearly 100 years before then, since the War of 1812. That is if you exclude military aid rendered to the Union during the Civil War, most famously at the Battle of the Thin Brown Line.

Basically, the reasons to not try to swallow the US again by the time this seemed possible (i.e. after War of 1812) apply much as in Dathi Thorfinnson's "YACW Canada Wank" on Alternatehistory.com and will be discussed in detail here in 45 years in-story.

 

[Arimai]

Correct me if I am wrong. Am I correct in positing that the divergence is that the British Empire either ended their wars early or did not go to war at all. Or if their war with every European power is still on track that they ended the war soon enough to have the strength to prevent the American from expanding. Which means that the original borders of BC all the way down to the 42nd parallel bordering Mexican California was retained? Then when Cain's proxy puppets the Shepards was granted independence to found Canada they expanded all the way west and eventually absorbed the Plains and consolidated with Mexico? What was keeping the British from reclaiming the USA?