Pictured above the city that granted the Convention its name
...the result would be the Lübeck Convention between the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, and the Electorate of Hanover. All parties would be contractually obligated to uphold the peace of Europe and the Holy Roman Empire. A treaty would be crafted at the convention building upon the previous declaration and stipulating the following terms…
-All parties of the Convention shall agree to enter into a formal defensive military alliance.
-All parties of the Convention shall pledge to support the neutrality of commerce within the confines of the Baltic Sea.
-All parties of the Convention shall agree to mutually lower tariffs, duties, and taxes on trade goods originating from member states.
Signed by,
[X] Alexander I, King of Great Britain & Ireland
[X] Frederick William I, King in Prussia & Elector of Brandenburg
[X] Frederick IV, King of Denmark & Norway
[X] George I, Elector of Hanover
-The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic agree to enter into a formal military alliance.
-The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic agree to afford mutual protection to each other's vessels and cargo while in either's jurisdiction.
-The Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic agree to provide mutual assistance, relief, and safe harbor to ships, both of War and Merchant, in times of crisis in each other's territory.
-The Kingdom of Great Britain recognizes Dutch suzerainty over the islands of Sumatra, Flores, and Java.
Signed by,
[X] John William Friso, Stadtholder & Prince of Nassau-Dietz
[X] Alexander I, King of Great Britain & Ireland
-Bandeirantes meeting with Captain Floriano Cardozo (pictured on the right) outside the walls of the fort of São Pedro.
Administratively, the coastal fortress at São Pedro had become the seat of one of colonial Brazil's fastest-growing regions. The region of Rio Grande de São Pedro as it was officially known (local settlers tended to call it Rio Grande do Sul) Captain Floriano Cardozo, a naval officer who was the preeminent figure of the region, more or less occupied the position of governor for the territory. Rio Grande de São Pedro was initially part of the Captaincy of São Paulo, still the largest Captaincy by land area. This owed to the influence of the local Paulistas, who contributed many of the men who served as Bandeirantes: irregular local forces who were constantly pushing the borders of the Portuguese Empire farther southward and westward. Unlike the Bandeirantes, however, Cardozo and most of his soldiers, however, were from Portugal proper. A few recruits were from Pernambuco, including Cardozo's half-Dutch navigator: Alfonso Craveiro van Witt, who had a Dutch father and had been born in the city of Recife, the former capital of New Holland, but the majority, including Cardozo himself, were from Portugal or its island territories. Cardozo himself was of Azorean extraction and had come to Brazil as a sailor, but intended ultimately to settle there and start a family.
Cardozo generally had a reputation for being firm but fair: exercising a strict and hierarchical command over his men but nonetheless leading them well and rarely asking overmuch of them. Despite being a sailor, Cardozo was also a surprisingly capable negotiator: a trait which was quite valuable in his dealings with the Bandeirantes who, while a component of Portuguese rule, were also unruly and unused to dealing with a solidified chain of military command as represented by Cardozo. Moreover, as Paulistas, the Bandeirantes generally made their expansions with the ultimate aim of securing more land for the Captaincy of São Paulo, not necessarily always for the greater benefit of the Portuguese Empire as a whole. Moreover, the sheer nature of the Bandeirantes as rough, rugged frontiersmen made many of them unsuited for the peaceful, dull existence of a landed settler. And their incomes derived largely from looting, mining, and enslavement, which they could only find new sources of by constantly pushing the borders of the empire farther and farther into new and unsettled lands. Consequently, the expansion of the Bandeirantes often significantly outpaced the ability of the Portuguese to actually settle the lands that had been newly-opened for conquest. Cardozo found himself administering what was in practice an entire Captaincy, but in reality was a band of forts largely confined to the coastal regions. Still, Cardozo proved capable of managing what he had at his disposal: directing the construction and fortification of outposts all along the coast of Rio Grande de São Pedro, all from the outpost of São Pedro itself, which had already started to gather a small but significant community within its walls, mostly comprised of camp followers who had come to provide services to the soldiers but also merchants who saw opportunity in the new region. Slowly but surely, settlements spread out along the coast of Rio Grande and beyond. The interior itself was being mapped, charted, and explored, and in regions where it was suitable and secure, settlement often followed.
Cardozo occasionally petitioned the Governor of São Paulo for reinforcements but his requests were rarely answered, and rarely with what he wanted: he asked for 1,000 men and could expect to receive 500. But not everything was against Cardozo in Rio Grande de São Pedro: there was a small but growing trend of regional migration, even cursory explorations had revealed that the region had rich farmland, and that unlike much of Brazil which had a tropical climate, Rio Grande de São Pedro had a temperate, dry climate much like that of Portugal. It was, furthermore, good land capable of growing wine, wheat, and grains for export.
This advantaged Cardozo because it gave him many incentives to attract new immigrants to the region, and he had been ignored one too many times by the Governor of São Paulo and was not about to take it lying down. Cardozo directly appealed to the commander of Portuguese naval forces in Brazil to petition the Crown to raise São Pedro to the status of Captaincy. As the Crown sought to develop Rio Grande to supply Colonia do Sacramento, Cardozo's request was quickly granted. On a map of Portugal's vast South American territories, a set of borders were drawn out to roughly comprise the area that Rio Grande de São Pedro would comprise. Thus it was in 1716 that Rio Grande de São Pedro (or Rio Grande do Sul to locals) would be given its official borders as a Portuguese Captaincy.
The interior was being explored, and villages were being founded. All in all, the borders of the Captaincy of Rio Grande de São Pedro were constantly being pushed outward, claiming miles upon miles of uncharted, unsettled land in the name of the Portuguese Crown.
-Huron settlements such as this were defensible, but their defenses could be used against them: if a settlement refused to capitulate, Iroquois raiders would often set the walls ablaze to force the residents to flee out into the open where they had no walls to protect them.
The collapse of the French as a power in North America was a sudden and dramatic event. The outcome of the War of Spanish Succession in North America was effectively a maximalist peace imposed on the French which at a single stroke tore down the French Empire in the Americas. In one fell swoop, the vast, untamed lands of French Louisiana became English, as were the more densely-settled regions of French North America. While this alone marked a drastic change to the political situation in North America, it was relations between local Indian tribes that would prove to be the most immediate consequence of the War of Spanish Succession.
For centuries since establishing their presence as a colonial power in North America, the French Empire had generally adopted a conciliatory policy towards the native peoples with whom it came into contact. Trade and commerce, particularly for furs, was the primary concern of the French in their relations with the Indians, most notable among whom were the Huron people who had a large and sophisticated trading network that proved an excellent facilitator to French interests in North America. It was for both sides a mutually-beneficial relationship: the French gained a steady supply of valuable pelts and furs which were highly sought-after in Europe for the garment industry, whereas the Huron often received iron tools and firearms in return for their own goods. Not all of the elements of the European presence in the region were beneficial to native peoples however, while the Huron did benefit from a comfortable trading relationship with the French, European diseases introduced by the French such as smallpox cut a deadly swath through the Huron population, who had no natural immunity to the diseases brought from Europe.
More ominously, native peoples who had conflicts with each other often took advantage of the enmity and competition between European powers to make powerful allies who could provide military reinforcements as well as a steady supply of muskets and gunpowder. One such conflict notably existed between the Huron, who generally allied to the French, and the Iroquois, who generally allied with the British in North America. Both tribes fought for supremacy over the other as well as control of the lucrative fur trade, which provided an all-important commodity that could be traded in exchange for iron tools and rifles. Conflicts were intense and while they involved nowhere near the same level of men or material as the wars of continental Europe, they were fought brutally by both sides. Little love was lost between either the Hurons or the Iroquois, and both tribes engaged in acts of pillage and slaughter against the other that were startlingly brutal even by the standards of warfare in the era.
The utter collapse of the French as a power in North America, coupled with the enormous growth of English territory after the peace treaty created a situation that was perfect for the English-allied Iroquois to exploit. With the French Empire defeated, many French settlers had abandoned outlying outposts and forts en masse: fleeing either to the safe havens of New France or southward to formerly French Louisiana. Suddenly, a trade network depended upon by the Hurons to provide a steady supply of guns and gunpowder had completely collapsed. However, this crisis was temporary: as the years passed, the Hurons never regained the same level of trade that they had once had with the French, but the English would take good pelts from any trapper and thus they tenuously were able to rebuild. More importantly, this upheld a certain very narrow balance of power between the Iroquois and the Huron. The Iroquois were stronger, far more so than the Huron, but their numbers were not so much so that they could risk war.
In the aftermath of the Tuscacora War, this changed rapidly: after the defeat of the Southern Tuscacoras in North Carolina, there was a great westward migration by the defeated Tuscacoras: whose lands and wealth had been invaded and split between the victorious colonists and their native allies. As was often the case in warfare between Amerindian peoples, the Southern Tuscacoras responded with flight: an immense northward movement into the lands of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Iroquois, who were strong, glutted from trade, but wanting for manpower, quickly signed agreements that brought the Tuscacora into the Iroquois Confederacy and effectively absorbed their remnants. Finally, the Iroquois had the numbers they needed, and their ranks were swelled with skilled warriors who were veterans of a major war. But they wanted for food, hunting grounds, and black powder, thus the Iroquois gave them these things and won their allegiance.
It did not take long for the Iroquois to take advantage of their newfound strength. The balance of power between the Huron and the Iroquois was now irrevocably altered and the Iroquois showed no hesitation to exploit the new state of affairs. One of the largest Indian Wars in recorded history began as Iroquois raiders swarmed the vulnerable lands of the Huron. Whole villages were burned and their populations massacred or taken into captivity. Hundreds of Huron women were raped and any man, woman, or child who was too resistant or too weak to be taken as captive had his throat opened with a sharp abalone shell. Those few who escaped faced starvation, while those who survived to be captured were inducted into the regional captive trade, which by now was glutted with the spoils of Indian wars throughout the land. As a result, the Huron and many others chose to flee, rather than face near-certain destruction by remaining on their lands. Fortunately for them, the Iroquois were primarily interested in Huron lands and consolidating even more control over the regional fur trade as the now-dominant power in the region. The worst of the raiding ended after the Huron fled their lands, even though those who survived were still frequently harried during their retreat.
The flight of the Huron and other enemies of the Iroquois one of the largest mass migrations in North American history. Even as they fled, the survivors were still periodically hit by Iroquois raids that felled the already-damaged Huron population even farther and seized yet more captives for trade. Still, the worst by then had already come to pass. The Iroquois sought primarily to take over the hunting grounds and settlements of the Huron to cement their newfound supremacy in the fur trade, and they were not threatened by the downtrodden remnants of their Huron enemies. For the survivors, it was a long, arduous march southward out of familiar land and to the Ohio River Valley, a tenuously-settled area with a weak British presence. Other Indian tribes were present in the valley but the Hurons were too large in number to simply be turned back.
A smaller but still significant band of Huron fleeing the expansion of the Iroquois Confederacy fled eastward instead of southward and settled in lands of the former New France. As the formerly French colonists generally had affable relations with the natives and both trade and intermarriage were commonplace, most of the refugees from the Huron and others simply disappeared into the local Quebecois population within a generation: with nothing left of their traditional ways and no resources with which to survive on their own, they generally assimilated into French culture and language and many even embraced the Catholic faith of their former rulers. Though it was also said ever after that French trappers in New France could frequently be seen in the dress of traditional Huron hunters, rather than of Europeans.
Meanwhile, with the Huron now settled in the Ohio River Valley, whispers began to emerge that the Huron were brokering agreements and trade with the settled tribes of the region, Captain Henry Burke, an English militia captain who commanded the most sizable English force in the Ohio River region, claimed he had heard news that a new tribal confederation was emerging in the Ohio River Valley...
Results:
-The complete collapse of the French as a power in North America leaves an immediate power vacuum.
-The English have more than doubled the size of their North American territory in a single stroke, leaving much of their empire undermanned.
-The Iroquois Confederacy, traditionally an ally of the English, had a longstanding conflict with the Huron, who were French allies. The balance of power between the two held only loosely, but the defeat of the Tuscacoras swells the ranks of the Iroquois with skilled warriors, giving them the manpower and skilled warriors they need to defeat the Huron.
-Devastating raids hit the Huron like lightning, decimating their defenses and preventing a major counterattack.
-The Huron and other tribes allied to them flee, largely going southward to the Ohio River Valley and surrounding areas. A smaller group moves eastward and settles alongside the French in the former areas of New France whereupon they largely assimilate into the local populace.
-The English had intended to use the French defeat to settle abandoned French forts and outposts in the Ohio River Valley past the Allegheny Mountain Range, but they have been occupied before the English could get to them.
-The Great Huron Migration instead puts the Ohio River Valley under the decisive control of the Huron and local tribes with whom they have made an arrangement. The nature of this supposed new "Confederacy" remains unknown.
-The Iroqouis, meanwhile, have established a firm control over the fur trade in what was once New France, giving them a near-complete monopoly over most of the regional fur trade. The effective range and size of the Iroquois Confederacy has increased substantially, though this has yet to be recognized by treaty.
To: The Governor of Pennsylvania @HumanityDark
From: Captain Henry Burke
I wasn't quite sure who to send this letter to, but seeing as you're His Majesty's appointed representative, I thought I would tell you first and then you may decide whether or not this is worthy of the government's notice.
I command some 250 men in the area of the Ohio River Valley, most of us are militia, not career soldiers: surveyors, trappers, frontiersmen, these are good men but we're not the Redcoats. I wish to ask about what His Majesty's government intends to have done regarding the situation in the Ohio River Valley. The presence of the Hurons has made the situation here... complicated and I will have to negotiate a treaty soon if there is to be an understanding between ourselves and the Indians. Their attitude towards us so far is wary but not openly hostile, though they have certainly made themselves at home in the forts the French abandoned after the war.
What I and other Englishmen command in the region in terms of forces is fairly weak. It is my earnest opinion that a military solution would not be viable at this time.
Still, I am a surveyor in the service of the Pennsylvania Colony, and I shall do my utmost to carry out whatever task I am given.
Sugar Baby
Dona-Norwegian Colonization of the Comoros Islands While few in number at the moment, sugar plantations are hoped to become main source of income for the colony in the near future.
Situated between Madagascar and Africa, the Mozambique Channel is one of the largest trade arteries in the world. Thousands of ships pass through this channel on a weekly basis with every prominent maritime nation taking part. With goods and resources from the East Indies selling for high prices on the European market, the importance of this region can not be understated. Sadly, being such a traffic heavy and wealthy region, the channel has a very real issue with piracy. At one point, over a thousand pirates were estimated to be located within Madagascar or one of its surrounding islands. Most of these pirates are located in Île Sainte-Marie, a popular base on the north-eastern shores of Madagascar. Being a nuisance to shipping within the area, the Danish East India Trading Company was quick to look for a solution when a few of its own vessels fell prey to these pirates. What they discovered was the Comoros archipelago, located in the center-north of the Mozambique Channel.
Host to an assortment of native Islamic states, the Comoros islands have remained largely untouched by Europeans for the better part of two centuries. Portuguese explorers first visited the archipelago in 1503, but little came from the discovery. Seeing that the islands are in a key position for the security of the
Mozambique Channel, plans were soon drafted by the Danish East Indian Company. In 1715, a small fleet of Danish ships set sail from Fort Dansborg, India. Consisting of two frigates and a few armed merchantmen, the fleet arrived off of the coast of Ngazidja (Grande Comore), the largest island of the archipelago. The natives were rather upset about the arrival of a European fleet. Sultan Ali bin Afar, leader of the sultanate which ruled the island, quickly dispatched dignitary. Overcoming the language barrier by speaking Portuguese, something which a local fisherman had a limited understanding of, it was conveyed to the Danes that the Sultanate wished for them to leave. The Dano-Norwegian refusal was made clear when a Norwegian marine planted the royal standard of Denmark into the ground.
With the intentions of Denmark-Norway made clear, a short conflict broke out between the Dano-Norwegian marines and the Royal Guard of the Sultan. Quick and rather one-sided, the marines killed over twenty men while only three of their own were wounded. Fearing his own death, Sultan Ali bin Afar asked for peace. Seeing what opposition would earn him, the Sultan quickly signed an agreement with the Danish East India Company that allowed Denmark-Norway to establish a protectorate over the entire island of Ngazidja; protectorates were soon established over Ndzwani (Anjouan), and Mwali (Mohéli) the following year.
Under the control of the Danish East India Company, construction efforts began in order to establish a sizable outpost within the archipelago. Comoros would soon come to serve as a way station for merchants sailing to the Far East and India and a deterrent for piracy in the region. As of now, the native commodities exported by the archipelago consist of coconuts, cattle and tortoiseshell. Although, extensive efforts are underway to establish a plantation-based economy in the colony. Being an ideal location for the growing of cash crops, slaves have been brought in from the Gold Coast to help jump start the formation of sugar plantations.
The Great Eastern War started in 1700 when Russia, Denmark-Norway, Saxony, and Poland-Lithuania came together to oppose the threat of Sweden's growing Baltic power and exploit the youth of its new king, Charles XII. In their minds the young Charles would be foolish and reckless in his carrying out of their war. But that conjuring was not to be. Within months Peter forced Denmark-Norway to exit after dodging the Danish army landing an army near their capital, Copenhagen. This was followed with a crushing victory over the Russians when his army braved a blizzard to obliterate Peter's forces. By the spring of 1701 the only remaining enemy of Sweden was Augustus II the Strong and his armies. Many expected the war to end soon with the destruction of the Augustus' army.
But the war did not. Charles gambled instead on seizing Moscow and forcing Russia out of the war. But his campaign faltered as he underestimated the Russians and most certainly Russia's elements. Hus instead of decisively defeating them they did the reverse. Elsewhere the Brunswickers took Bremen-Verden, the Mecklenburgers took Pomerania, and the Poles took Livonia. Again many though the war over with Charles imprisoned by the Russians. And it might have been, but this time the Russians were the ones who overextended as they demanded over half of the Swedish empire for Russia and only minor gains for Russia's allies. This both alienated Russia's allies and rallied Russia's enemies. In the former category Mecklenburg and Brunswick-Luneburg abandoned Russia in all but name and Poland-Lithuania openly quit its alliance with Russia and made peace with the Swedes. Meanwhile the Ottomans joined the war against the Russians in attempt to forceRussia to make reasonable terms.
The next phase of the war saw the Russians mindlessly throw men against strong Swedish defenses in Ingria and Estland resulting in a massive failure. While in the south the Ottomans would deliver a string of defeats to the Russians and their allies. It started with the Crimeans absolutely destroying the Zaporozhian Cossacks and neutralizing them from the war. Then the Poles who had chosen to join the war only against the Ottomans found themselves dumbfounded by the familiar warzone of Moldavia where they tried to conquer a province of fortresses through victories on the field alone. On their homefront the Poles were confronted with a rebellion of the Cossacks. And then the Russians underestimated the Ottomans and failed to recognize the inadequacies of their defenses and army allowing for the Ottomans to secure swathes of Southern Russia. And the east became inflamed with war as the Nogai, Kalmyks, and Bashkirs all chose sides.
After this war expanded greatly. With the Ottomans successes the Venetians, Austrians, and Safavids all came to aid of the Holy Alliance to curb the power of the Sublime Porte. While the Swedes unsure of themselves and of the war and also in need of recovery time made a truce with the Russians. However the Ottomans were no alone as the Mughals, Hungarians, and eastern Khanates all answered the Sublime Porte's call for war. In the mess of the year 1703 many things occurred. In Ukraine the Poles and Cossacks made peace with the Cossacks gaining many rights and liberties. In Moldavia Augustus still refused to recognize the fact that Moldavia needed to be won with sieges not battles as the land was riddled with fortresses. Instead without paying any heed to the fortresses he dived deep in Moldavia and suffered for it with heavy losses and eventually repulsion. Meanwhile Russia too was devoid of major engagements as the Ottomans avoided battle and focused on consolidating while their surrogates, the Crimeans, laid waste to Russia. And in the east the managed to use the Safavid entrance to win over the full of the khanates and further bolster the numbers of the anti Russians. In Hungary the Hungarians flourished under the lead of the Ottoman mercenary, Imre Thokoly, as the Austrians sent their worst to deal with the rebellion. The main Austrian army fared not far better as it focused on trying to seize the strategically unimportant Sarajevo rather than Belgrade. It was only the Venetians who met success as they stole Crete away. And most depressingly of all the Safavids completely collapsing in face of a well organized Mughal invasion combined with a massive Sunni uprising in the east and west.
1704 would prove even more eventful. In the south the Holy Alliance secured some victories as Augustus advanced into Moldavia finally acknowledging the importance of its fortifications. The Russians and some Polish reinforcements' offensive failed, but the army remained undefeated. Whilst the Russians navy had some successes on the Don, but failed to put Azov aflame. A true navy, the Venetian one, actually defeated the Ottoman navy and went on to capture the Cyclades. And finally the Austrians realizing their earlier mistakes went after Belgrade and even took the fortress. The successes of the Ottomans meanwhile were restricted to a limited invasion of Morea and a slave raid of Nizhny Novgorod. Yet with all of that 1704 was the worse year for the Holy Alliance. In the north Charles XII, having securing his freedom from the Russians, invaded Poland-Lithuania and steamrolled Livonia and then defeated the Polish-Lithuanian relief force. While in the south the Austrians and Thokoly reached an understanding that was meant to end the rebellion. But then certain members of Thokoly inner circle betrayed the plot to the Ottomans and delivered Thokoly's daughter to Sublime Porte. This ended Thokoly's little strive towards peace. Instead he heinously deceived the Austrians and butchered their army. This victory allowed him to seize the Hungarian plain ad the city of Budapest. All of this added up to decisively turn the war in favor of the Ottomans.
Faced with all those troubles the Holy Alliance collapsed. Augustus II was the first to quit the war as he offered the Ottomans the status quo and rushed home. The Venetians followed as they saw the way the wind blew. They too agreed to the status quo. The Austrians humiliated were able to trade Belgrade for recovery of most of Hungary, but Transylvania was freed. And also many new freedoms for the Hungarians were forced down the throat of the Austrians. From there the Great Eastern War became two wars, one in Poland and one in Russia.
In Poland-Lithuania Augustus II the Strong hoped to turn the tides and throw the Swedes out. He was confident of success and even more so when he secured the support of Prussia and its armies. But he was a fool and he was fooled. In the west the undefended Saxony was overrun by Brunswickers and Danes and Prussians. In western Poland the Prussians overwhelmed the Poles and collapsed the region. At Warsaw the Prussians crushed the Polish army and seized the city. Augustus meanwhile threw all his heavy equipment away and baggage in a sprint into Lithuania where Charles was. And when Augustus was deep in Lithuania he discovered the Prussian duplicity and rapidly retreated into Ruthenia. The war would end in a series of defeats and betrayals for Augustus until all that remained to him was the fortress of Kamenets. All of which convinced many that Augustus would seek peace, he did. In Russia the Peter I thought himself a genius and capable of defying all military logic and crushing the Ottomans. He did not as his venture into Ukraine ended poorly and Peter lost much of his army and the city of Kiev. Meanwhile the eastern Khanates were pushed back, but not defeated. And an attempt to take Azov failed miserably. All of which convinced many that Peter would seek peace, he did not.
The next year saw Augustus and his enemies end the war with the Treaty of Altranstadt. There he renounced his thrones, one to the Prince of Conti the other to his son. The stubborn Peter meanwhile tried to fight on. He failed to win any major victories and only succeeded in furthering the ruination of Russia. In the west thee Ottomans abandoned a siege of Smolensk in face of his approaching army, but Peter's son received all the credit. In the south the Ottomans advanced further north and stole Voronezh. And in the east the Khanates nearly collapsed the eastern road to Moscow, but the Russians plagued them instead. It was a horrifying experience for Russia and many begged for peace.
The followed year the Russians prayers were unanswered as Peter descended further into lunacy and refused to seek terms with the Ottomans. Instead he threw the Muscovites out their homes into the cold and maws of the Crimeans, while he set up his army at Moscow where he intend to lure the Ottomans in and then ambush them. The Ottomans refused to play that game and instead swallowed up more of Russia. And in the east the Khanates ravaged Russian farmlad, but out of fear of further plague avoided attacking Nizhy Novgorod.
Finally the Great Eastern War would end in 1708. The year witnessed the Ottomans seize more unimportant towns. And the Crimeans and Khanates deepen the wounds Russia had suffered. Peter meanwhile remained unchanged and said that it would have to be Moscow or Constantinople before he agreed to any peace. It was this lunacy, those military failures, a horrible winter, and a persuasive conservative faction all combined to make 1708 Peter's last year on Earth. The Conservatives whipped up the people, the army, and the nobility all against Peter and then watched as Peter was destroyed by his own army. Then they finally put an end to the war and made a humiliating peace with the Ottomans that accepted vast losses. Yet the legacy and consequences of the war extend past that and all of this.
Denmark-Norway
The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway spent very little time fighting the Great Eastern War. It was there in the very beginning, but was quickly defeated and forced out. However this quick defeat was not one of complete misfortune. Without the distraction of the Great Eastern War the Danes were ready when the Brunswickers attacked them in Jutland. That state of readiness allowed the Danes to repel the Brunswickers and then take the war to Brunswick. This defeat led to the electorate abandoning Bremen-Verden to the Danes. From there the Danes went on expand their German holdings through a series of diplomatic overtures and military threats. Thus the early defeat of the Danes may have deferred their ambitions in Scania, but it expedited them in Germany.
In the peace that followed the brief Holstein War Denmark-Norway contemplated renting their army out as mercenaries to the belligerents of the War of the Spanish Succession. In light of that thought they began to develop a national guard which might defend Denmark-Norway while the real army fought someone else's war. They also increased the amount of training and discipline require of their soldiers to fetch a higher price. In the end though the idea of having the army go mercenary was shelved, but the augments to the Danish-Norwegian military remained.
Outside of the army Denmark-Norway was also active in the diplomacy that resulted from the Great Eastern War. When the Mecklenburg Crisis was born out of Mecklenburg-Schwerin's participation in the Great Eastern War, Denmark-Norway quickly intervened. In recognition of the potential dangerous precedent Emperor Leopold was setting Denmark-Norway spoke out in opposition and rallied the Lower Saxon Circle to defeat the intentions of the Hapsburgs. This was significant as Denmark-Norway was able to partake in filling the void left by the collapse of Swedish power in Germany. Also the aid of Brunswick-Luneburg in the crisis was salient as it represented the beginning of a healing process from the Holstein War that led to more Danish and Brunswicker cooperation.
Later Denmark-Norway once more militarily entangled itself in the Great Eastern War. This time however on the side of Sweden. The Danes and Norwegians deployed their fleet to aid the Prussians at Danzig. Meanwhile their army in conjunction with the Brunswicker one invaded Saxony. In both instances the Danish-Norwegian forces performed admirably. But more importantly new, strong bonds were formed with Prussia. While the relationship with Brunswick-Luneburg was further improved and expanded upon. This deepened Denmark-Norway's commitment and influence in Germany which had flourished since the Mecklenburg Crisis.
All of this culminated in the hugely important Lubeck Convention. With Denmark-Norway and Brunswick-Luneburg's participation in the Great Eastern War having ended in a net positive both were motivated to agree to such an alliance. Further the growing German power of Denmark-Norway made it an important partner of British and Prussian interests in the Baltic and German region. Indeed in regards to defending the peace of the Holy Roman Empire, Denmark-Norway's resolution of the Mecklenburg Crisis was already testament to Denmark-Norway's commitment. Ultimately the Swedish addition to the alliance caused Denmark-Norway to withdraw in fear of the monster that the Great Eastern War had turned Sweden into.
Electorate of Brunswick-Luneburg
The Electorate of Bruwswick-Luneburg has a mixed history of the Great Eastern War. For them it began with a expensive, but widely successful invasion of Swedish Bremen-Verden. This action however was not widely acclaimed and instead abhorred, for the Brunswicker armies were promised to fight the French not the Swedes. Indeed the Hapsburgs had awarded Brunswick-Luneburg with a great deal of land in return for its aid. Only for Brunswick-Luneburg to turn its back on the Grand Alliance and invade Sweden. This alienated the Grand Alliance and was beginning of much trouble.
The Hapsburgs in great need of Brunswicker troops agreed to forgive the Brunswickers and forgo punishment should the Brunswicker armies come to the aid of the Imperial ones. Yet once more the Brunswickers turned north instead of south when they now attacked Denmark-Norway. This invasion ended in disaster as the Danes threw them back and went on to invade Brunswick-Luneburg. A great humiliation for Brunswick-Luneburg. This was compounded by the Grand Alliance's reaction of absolute dismay and disgust. Which was surprisingly noticeable even among the English who expected the Hanoverians might sooner or later come to rule England. Eventually the Brunswickers surrendered to Denmark-Norway under imperial pressure. Which marked a decline in the power and influence of the recently made electorate.
The loss of prestige and influence became a notable part of Brunswick-Luneburg's foreign policy. Shortly after the Holstein War the Brunswickers intervened in the Mecklenburg Crisis in support of Denmark-Norway. Which marked the beginning of rebuilding of Danish-Brunswicker relations. The loss also provoked Brunswick-Luneburg to agree to a partnership with Prussia that lasts to this very day. The partnership led the Brunswickers to follow Prussia into its war against Poland-Lithuania and Saxony. A war which also helped Danish-Brunswicker relations. The war ended with Brunswick-Luneburg gaining huge amounts of influence in Saxony with the regency.
In total the Great Eastern War most certainly damaged Brunswick-Luneburg's territorial ambitions. However it did end up aiding Brunswick-Luneburg's political ambitions. It was able to grow its influence in Germany by making a stand alongside Denmark-Norway in the Mecklenburg. And also the alliance with Prussia featured numerous shows of Brunswicker strength which further grew that influence. Most importantly in Saxony where even with the regency having ended Brunswick-Luneburg remains a major powerbroker. Most significantly though all of this came together in motivating Brunswick-Luneburg to sign the Lubeck Convention.
Most Serene Republic of Venice
The Most Serene Republic of Venice joined the Great Easter War as part of the revived Holy Alliance to defeat the Ottoman menace and its ambitions. The Venetians in contrast to their allies actually won their parts of the war. They took Crete in the first year while the Poles muckered in Moldavia, the Austrians wandered in Bosnia, and the Russians dallied in Russia. Then they would go on to defeat the might of the Ottoman navy and take the Cyclades without the aid of anyone but themselves. And in Morea when faced with invasion they were able to limit its effects and consequences.
Nonetheless the Venetians ended up losing the war, because while they pulled their weight their allies did not do the same. This defeat ended with a status quo which in other terms meant all of that money and destruction was wasted for naught. That domestically led to the rise of the Barbanotti. Internationally though this defeat alongside the Austrians combined with the earlier Piave Lines Ordeal combined to paint the Austrians as weak and ineffectual in Venice's eyes. This led the Venetians to instead seek solace in the arms of France. France's antipiracy effort during the Great Eastern War had benefited the security of Venetian trade and that was only icing on the cake of France's growing power. This of course was later altered by the consequences of the Third War of the Grand Alliance and the Eighth Ottoman-Venetian War.
The Third War of the Grand Alliance had been militarily successful for Venice: its armies, reformed by the efforts of Doge Corner, performed admirably considering the traditional dominance of Venice at sea rather than on land. However, politically were problems. In personal negotiations with the French, Venice had been promised "gains worthy of an emperor" by a French delegation on behalf of Louis XIV. Had these promises come to fruition: Venice would have received Mantua, Milan, and even the tiny inland Duchy of Montferrato and Venice would have seen itself emerge as the dominant power in Northern Italy. Louis XIV, eager to punish Victor Amadeus of Savoy for his treachery, would have dismantled his kingdom and brought the House of Savoy itself to an end as a ruling dynasty in Italy. However, this would not come to pass. Louis XIV had taken gravely ill and lost more and more power over functions of state. Instead they were taken over by his son, the future Louis XV. Louis XV was more conciliatory than his father, and also had far less trust for the Venetians. Of the three promised territories it was to receive: Venice would gain only Mantua, and the territory of Lombardy itself would be left almost entirely intact. While Mantua was a good prize, it was only a fraction of what was promised. And after the loss of Venice's territories in the Eighth Ottoman-Venetian War. The revenues of the Venetian state declined significantly from the loss of Dalmatia, Crete, and Morea, while the city itself had an influx of impoverished nobility with no clear role or place within the Venetian Republic. Doge Corner personally championed a series of initiatives to grant land and estates in Mantua to the Barnabotti, though this created friction between the Mantuans and their newfound Venetian rulers.
The Hapsburg Monarchy
The Hapsburgs' first involvement in the Great Eastern War occurred when the Hapsburgs chose to benefit the rising Mecklenburg-Schwerin a Russian ally. Benefit meaning abandon Imperial precedent in an attempt to regain prestige lost during the War of the Spanish Succession. However Austria was quickly abandoned by the ally they expected in Prussia. And then challenged by Denmark-Norway and Brunswick-Luneburg the Austrians had a fateful decision. They chose the peaceful option which resulted in a significant hit to the image of the Hapsburg dynasty.
The Hapsburg Monarchy's greatest fear was not the French, but the Turks. While the French were separated by tens of German and Italian statelets from Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary, the Ottomans were right on the border. Thus when the Ottomans went to war against the Russians the Austrians feared that should the Ottomans win their that they would only later come for Austria. Thus Austria made the preemptive action of reviving the Holy Alliance of the Great Turkish War in effort to defeat the Ottoman Empire.
However just as Austria flailed in the War of the Spanish Succession it did so in the Great Eastern War. The lack of any strategic reasoning of its campaigns in Bosnia was ridiculous. The fact that it took any amount of time for the Austrians to get their act together scared many of Austria's allies and frightened many of them towards new patrons. And then the complete mishandling of the Hungarian Rebellion and the failure of taking every word of Imre Thokoly to be absolute truths just made the idea of Hapsburg decline even more profound.
At the end of the war the Austrians found themselves to concede all gains in return for the recovering of all of Hungary save for Transylvania. The Austrians were also forced to accept numerous religious freedoms and political liberties in regards to the Hungarians. This combined with the earlier War of the Spanish Succession and later Third War of the Grand Alliance was a complete loss of face for the Hapsburg dynasty. And besides causing economic hardships and military restructuring it also politically motivated further challenges to the power of the Hapsburgs.
In the end Austria's participation in the Great Eastern War was one of sad failure. It was a series of events that resulted in a series of hits to Hapsburg prestige and influence in Germany. The weakness of Austria would turn many who had once rallied behind the Hapsburg emperor. Although Austria would begin a period of renewed diplomatic and political engagement guided by the efforts of Charles VI, and made strident efforts to restructure its military, its economy, and rebuild internal unity, the Karlist Reforms could not undo the decline of Hapsburg power and prestige instantaneously.
Most importantly these failures were some of the causes for the near-challenge to the Hapsburgs during the Imperial Election of 1715. Also the Great Eastern War bore the son that was the monstrous Lubeck Convention. Which at first seemed like an anti-Swedish alliance, but with Sweden's joining it is feared it might be an anti-Austrian alliance by some. However Denmark-Norway's withdrawal is a fortunate sign.
Mecklenburgs
The Mecklenburgs were a pair of two small German duchies that had been divided in 1700 in an effort to stave off civil war. However this effort nearly failed. During the Great Eastern War the Russians reached out to the Mecklenburgs for aid in the war against Sweden. Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the larger of the two duchies, refused because it believed that Sweden's victory over its enemies was not far off. Mecklenburg-Schwerin however was poor and small and its duke discontent with the split of Mecklenburg. Thus he was willing to gamble on the Russian alliance in an attempt to double the size of his realm with the conquest of Pomerania and fill his coffers with Russian subsidies. And he gambled correctly for his Hes army, paid for by the Russians, overwhelmed Swedish Pomerania and delivered it Mecklenburg-Schwerin at little cost. This made Mecklenburg-Schwerin into a richer, more sizable duchy to the anger of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. But soon after Mecklenburg-Strelitz sold the southern half of Swedish Pomerania to Prussia for a large sum of money.
Riding off the victory over Swedish Pomerania Mecklenburg-Schwerin decided to gamble. This time Mecklenburg-Schwerin was able to draw the Prussians and Austrians into an agreement to revise the Hamburg Accord and unit all of Mecklenburg under Schwerin. In return Mecklenburg-Schwerin abandoned the rest of Swedish Pomerania to the Prussians. Yet this gamble failed when the Hapsburg revision was met with opposition from Denmark-Norway. Following that the Prussians chose to abandon the Hapsburgs while the whole of the Lower Saxon Circle mobilized to oppose the revision. Eventually Austria, humiliated, backed down and the status quo remained.
Not long after the Mecklenburg Crisis Prussia moved to secure the rest of Swedish Pomerania. With an army on the border the Prussians requested that Mecklenburg-Schwerin sell the rest of Swedish Pomerania and even offered to allow Mecklenburg-Schwerin some economic concessions. Mecklenburg-Schwerin recognized that the Prussias would not accept no for an answer and that if he refused he could not hope to defeat the Prussian invasion that would follow. Thus he agreed to the lucrative deal with the Prussians. In the end little changed for the two Mecklenburgs, save now Mecklenburg-Schwerin was rich.
Kingdom of Prussia
Prussia has been greatly changed by the Great Eastern War. Prussia at first was not directly involved in the conflict, but benefited nonetheless. After Mecklenburg-Schwerin had conquered Swedish Pomerania the Prussians were able to use shrewd diplomacy to buy off half of Swedish Pomerania from the duchy. And then Prussia and Mecklenburg-Schwerin reached another agreement over the rest of Swedish Pomerania. In return for Prussian aid in securing the reunion of Mecklenburg under Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin would cede Prussia the rest of Swedish Pomerania.
Then Austria, fresh off their defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession, also took up the banner of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in an effort to regain their lost prestige. But when Austria released its revised Hamburg Accord that handed all of Mecklenburg to Mecklenburg-Schwerin the Prussians lingered in the shadows. And they continued to linger when Denmark-Norway then Brunswick-Luneburg then the whole Lower Saxon Circle mobilized in their opposition of the new accord. Finally Prussia made clear it had no intention of coming to Austria's aid in the crisis which led to Austria accepting the status quo which served to hurt Hapsburg prestige and influence in Germany greatly. Something which be a factor in the Imperial election of 1715.
Later Prussia did directly participate in the Great Eastern War. During the Swedish invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth the Prussians initially came out in support of King Augustus II the Strong. But Prussia's intentions were untrue, whether from the beginning or soon after is in question. Prussia decided to instead of helping the Poles and Lithuanians and fighting the Swedes to do the reverse. This led to the complete collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian war effort which was depending on Prussian aid and had no way of challenging the Prussian betrayal. Prussia also brought Denmark-Norway and Brunswick-Luneburg into the war on Sweden's side, they would invade and conquer Saxony. In the peace that followed numerous salient consequences were produced. Prussia's population increased by 1.8 million people and its landmass vastly expanded. Meanwhile they also connected Ducal Prussia with Brandenburg. Further Prussia was enriched with indemnities. And in Saxony the Prussians and Brunswickers secured a Protestant, 10 year regency for Frederick Augustus II.
In the end the Great Eastern War should be considered the war that truly turned the ascendant Prussia into a major European power of great military might and political sway. Which contrasted vastly with the Hapsburg decline and served to bolster the martial, powerful image of Prussia. However it also produced a wary attitude towards Prussian friendship which had grown increasingly fickle in the alter 1600s and early 1700s. Also the combination of the Swedish decline in German influence, Brunswicker failure in the Holstein war, and Saxon regency produced Prussia as the undeniable leader of the Protestant Germany. Finally Prussia's efforts to work with Brunswick-Luneburg, Denmark-Norway, and Sweden during the Great Eastern War served to establish long lasting relationships and as a basis for the later Lubeck Convention.
Saxony
Formerly the homeland of Augustus the Strong, Saxony was initially part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: having entered a personal union with the Commonwealth upon the election of Augustus the Strong as King of Poland. However, after the Great Eastern War, Augustus the Strong was deposed from his throne and Saxony reverted to independence. His young son, Frederick Augustus II, received the throne under a 10-year period of regency controlled by Prussia and Mainz. Endeavouring to prevent a succession crisis, Frederick Augustus was married to a German noblewoman: Fredericke-Charlotte of Hesse-Darmstadt with Prussian support, thus hopefully securing Saxony's future: not only in forestalling the collapse of the Albertine Wettin line and an unpleasant succession that would follow, but also in maintaining Prussian influence in Saxony.
Kingdom of Sweden
Sweden has been one of the most remarkably changed countries by the Great Eastern War. The early Swedish victories against the triumvirate of Denmark-Norway, Russia, and Poland-Lithuania nearly handed Sweden a quick, decisive, victorious end to the war. But then the reversal of the failed invasion of Russia nearly collapsed Sweden's position as a major European power. However Russia demanded too much of Sweden and provoked Sweden into continuing the war even with their army decimated. But worse invoked the intervention of the Ottoman Empire.
The Swedish-Ottoman alliance was secured through the efforts of the Swedish Riksdag and was thought of as a potential longlasting friendship that would be the scourge of Eastern Europe. But barely a year later the Swedish would make a truce with the Russians whose attempts to conquer Ingria and Estland had fared poorly. But many still believed the Swedish and Ottoman alliance was sound and Sweden only made the truce to rebuild its army so it might exact its revenge on Russia in two years. Yet when Charles XII and the Queen secured a peace with Russia when they had the opportunity to shatter the unity of the Holy Alliance it became official that the Swedes only considered the Ottomans an ally of convenience.
Nonetheless Sweden did end up aiding the Ottomans when they took advantage of Augustus II the Strong throwing everything into the war against the Ottomans in Moldavia. By invading Poland-Lithuania they were able to provide one factor of the Holy Alliance's collapse in 1705, the other being Thokoly's treachery. This did not however restore Swedish and Ottoman relations as everyone could tell that this was simple opportunism not a purposeful effort meant to aid the Sublime Porte. Anyways on the subject of the Swedish invasion its quick, easy success rehabilitated the image of Swedish military prowess. It also aided Swedish relations with the German powers by proving to them that Sweden had abandoned its German ambitions in favor of Eastern European ones. The next year of the war carried even more importance.
In the second year of the war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Saxony the Swedes were completely victorious. The Swedes managed to bring in Prussia, Brunswick-Luneburg, and Denmark-Norway into its war against Augustus II. This was done by basically confirming their gains from the Great Eastern War and its parallel conflicts and recognizing Sweden's German decline. With that alliance Sweden and its allies easily trunced Augustus II on all fronts and isolated him to the signle fortress of Kamenets.
Sweden aand its allies' overwhelming success caused Augustus II to surrender. In his surrender he agreed to renounce his Polish-Lithuanian crown in favor of the Swedish candidate, the Prince of Conti. He also restored Swedish Livonia and Palatinate-Zweibrucken to Sweden. And finally he transferred the vassalge of the Duchy of Courland to the Kingdom of Sweden. This once more made Sweden the dominant Baltic power. And it also secured Poland-Lithuania as a friend and ally of Sweden. Meanwhile the gains of Prussia in Poland convinced many that Sweden, who annexed none of the Commonwealth's land, was a needed friend in face of the threats of Prussia, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire.
With Sweden once more on top in the Baltic many expected it might bring a reckoning to Russia from the north and end the Great Eastern War. However it chose to side on the sidelines and let the Ottoman Empire exhaust itself blleding Russia out. This served to worsen Swedish and Ottoman relations somewhat. But fit while with Swedish interests in weakening Russia, but not destroying it. Domestically Charles XII used his successes in the war against Poland-Lithuania to firmly retake the reins of Sweden from the Riksdag and reestablish his absolute power as monarch of Sweden.
In the echos of the Great Eastern War Russia's central authority would collapse and a void would emerge. Sweden finally invaded Russia once more and easily triumphed over the fractious Russians. However Charles XII, now the Magnificent, chose against oblierating Russia as he could have. Instead he decided to dedicate Swedish resources to rebuilding Russia and restoring its integrity. This meant forcing the new Cossack Sich to abandon its huge claims over Russian land and completely denying the possibility of any free Siberian states. All of this served to strengthen Sweden and establish Russia as a respectable ally.
In total the Great Eastern War after a mixed beginning has ended in a massive victory for Sweden. In Germany, Sweden sacrificed much of its empire for the friendship and aid of Prussia and Brunswick-Luneburg which would later lead to Sweden's acceptance by them into the Lubeck Convention. In Eastern Europe Sweden placed an ally on the Polish-Lithuanian throne and though he died soon after the Swedish influence in the Commonwealth remained due to the pro-Swedish nature of the empowered Lithuanians. And in Russia Sweden was able to secure vast swathes of undeveloped and lowly populated land which served only to produce some strategic depth for Finland. The true gains would be political with Sweden gaining great deals of influence and power in Russia.
There are some other pieces of the legacy of war for Sweden. In 1716 after 15 years of rebuilding and recovering the Swedish army's strength returned to number 70,000 men. This combined with discipline and skill of Sweden's army gave Sweden the largest and most powerful army in the Baltic and in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile Riga and Tallin over the last decade have significantly developed and become large port cities of large importance to the Baltic region. And in the Duchy of Courland the young duke, Frederick William Kettler, died. His successor should be his uncle Ferdinand Kettler, was a prominent support of Augustus II and resided a Augustus' little court in Italy for years before he realized that his nephew was not going to produce a son. Some in the Swedish Riksdag trust Ferdinand not and are instead arguing that the duchy be passed to the Swedish crown directly or a to a new duke maybe Augustus' bastard Hermann Maurice.
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was dominating Central Europe and was on the verge of conquering Vienna when the Holy League assembled and routed the Ottomans. Years later one of the members of the Holy League, Russia was on the verge of destroying Sweden as a power and dominating the Baltic Sea. Too this the Ottomans reacted in fear that Russia's neutralization of Sweden allowing Russia to turn south and came to the aid of Sweden. At first they hoped that Russia would see the folly in their excessive terms and agree to new lesser ones, but soon the Ottomans realized otherwise and embarked on a long war.
At first the Ottomans and their new found Swedish friends faced the Russians alone. And both allies were able to achieve great success. However the Swedes abandoned the Ottoman alliance in favor of a brief respite from war which ended many dreams of a Ottoman-Swedish partnership dominating Eastern Europe. Meanwhile the Ottomans found themselves suddenly opposed by a reformed Holy Alliance and even the Safavids. Which may have spelled disaster had the Holy Alliance not bumbled its first year of offensives and had the Shia nature of the Safavids not brought in a number of Sunnnis to the Ottoman cause, most important among them the Mughal Empire. This meant a renewal of animosity with the whole of Eastern Europe and a deepening of friendship with the Eastern Khanates and Mughal Empire.
In Persia the humongous efforts of the Mughal Empire and its Sunni allies in Eastern Persia succeeded in practically collapsing the Safavid Dynasty as a power. As a result the Mughals and Ottomans were able to impose a very favorable peace. This delivered to the Ottomans the Caucasus and the rest of Mesopotamia. The former secured the Ottomans a large portion of coast on the Caspian Sea from where they could expand their power into Central Asia. And the latter added a more population and revenue base to the Ottoman Empire. And importantly the Shatt al Arab was entirely in Ottoman hands thus securing the trade of the Tigris and Euphrates for the Ottomans.
As the war dragged on the Ottomans were able to continue to repel the Holy Alliance for a time. Until the Swedish truce with Russia came to end. With that there was worry among the Holy Alliance that the Swedes might destroy them in the rear and it nearly collapsed the alliance, had not Sweden abandoned the Ottoman Empire in favor of concluding a peace with Russia. This both saved the Holy Alliance and its unity while damning what remained of the Swedish and Ottoman friendship. And once more there was worry that the Ottomans would be destroyed.
The Holy Alliance did actually manage a series of successful offenses in that year. However two events that the Ottomans had not exactly planned for ruined the Holy Alliance's war effort. In the north the Swedish invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and in the south the absolute treachery of Imre Thokoly in regards to the Austrians. Neither of these events were entirely meant to favor the Ottomans and both were riddled with opportunism. The Swedish invasion did not repair Ottoman and Swedish relations only furthered the Ottomans considering the Swedes as nothing more than opportunists. Meanwhile Thokoly's betrayal of the Austrians restored a working relationshipp between the Ottomans and Hungarians ad reaffirmed their alliance. Back to the matter at hand those two events led to all but Russia concluding peace with the Ottomans.
In the peaces the Ottomans for the most part restored the status quo ante bellum. However in regards to the Hapsburg Monarchy the Ottomans traded the Hungarian occupied Pannonian Plain for the Austrian occupied Serbia. This was barely a better deal than the Austrians offered Imre Thokoly and was not met with much celebration by the Hungarian rebels who saw it as a failure by the Ottomans to fulfill their mission of liberating Hungary. Which caused some level of mistrust to grow among the Hungarians for the Ottomans. Many upper Hungarians simply viewed it as the Ottomans keeping the Hungarian people low and as a potential threat to the Hapsburgs in future Ottoman-Austrian wars.
In Russia the Ottomans continued to fight the Russians. After a series of mixed offensives the Ottomans chose to focus on bleeding the Russians out. Which eventually played a role in motivating the coup d'etat against Peter I the Mad. After whcih the Ottomans were able to secure a peace with the Russians. This peace returned to the Ottomans only Azov. However it greatly expanded the land of the Ottoman allies in Russia. The Cossacks received Kiev, the Crimeans received huge swathes of land, and the Eastern Khanates were liberated. All of this worked to establish a string of strong Ottoman allied buffers against Russia.
In total the Ottoman participation in the Great Eastern War was a long, bloody, and costly one that was awarded greatly. The Ottomans had restored themselves greatly from the aftermath of the Great Turkish War. However their power had shifted from Central Europe to Eastern Europe as a result of the two wars. Once more the Ottoman Empire stood strong and menacing, but the fear of the Swedes and the French distracted many from recognizing the Turkish threat. And as a result of the war the Ottomans were able to gain many new allies and lay the foundations for several future alliances.
One major consequence of the war was the Ottomans' shifted alliances. During the war an anti-piracy mission by the French had dearly harmed the Barbary Corsairs and it damaged French and Ottoman relations. This damage would later play a part in causing the complete collapse of the longstanding French and Ottoman alliance after the Eight Ottoman-Venetian War. Meanwhile the shift of Ottoman power to the east established new relations like the friendships with Khiva and the Mughal Empire. And also the alliances with the Cossacks and Kazan Khanates which would lead to the Ottoman Empire being the one to secure their gains in Russia through negotiations with Charles the Magnificent.
Another major consequence was the change of demographics with the enslavement of tens of thousands of Slavic Russians by the Khanates and their subsequent purchase into the Ottoman slave network. This cobined the conquest of the Caucasus from Persia secured for the Ottomans two huge population bases for the recruitment of their janissaries and other military units. It also changed the demographics of regions across the empire with slaves ending up in large numbers in regions like Egypt and Mesopotamia.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the opening of the 18th-century was in a decent shape: although the Sejm, a legislative body that vastly distinguished the Commonwealth from the absolute monarchies of its neighbors, was prone to prolonged periods of indecision that occasionally hampered the effectiveness of the Commonwealth's governance, this was by no means a crippling ailment. Quite the contrary, the Commonwealth was wealthy and heavily urbanized, another feature which made the Commonwealth very unusual compared to the standard in Central and Eastern Europe.
Poland's ruler in the early 1700's was the formidable figure of Augustus the Strong: a Wettin of the Albertine line who was originally born and raised as a Protestant in Saxony. However, after his election as King of Poland, which also unified Saxony into his Kingdom, Augustus soon proved himself to be very active as a ruler. Among many others, one of his first measures was to begin the construction of a new naval fleet for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Although the Commonwealth had not had a sea navy worthy of the name since the 17th century, Augustus believed that a great European power required a great navy to survive, and thus it was that this project proceeded forward without opposition: Augustus was a formidable man, not merely another foreigne who could be easily influenced by the Commonwealth's elites. In a way, Augustus' naval project was deeply reflective of his flaws as a ruler: he spent money on pursuits of dubious value and without regard to the consequences this would have on Poland's relations with its neighbors who had every reason to be concerned about Poland asserting itself in the Baltic Sea. But, insisting that this was for Poland's ultimate benefit, Augustus would not hear of disagreements on such a matter. He also declared the end of the elective monarchy and instead raised himself as the hereditary ruler of Poland. However, in one of his rare moments of flirting with competence: Augustus won the approbation of his Sejm by buying off those opposed to this measure, and promising not to alter the substantial privileges granted to the Sejm as well as the Commonwealth's aristocracy as a whole.
It was much in this way that Augustus would charge into the Great Eastern War: with his main focus being the Ottoman territory of Moldavia, likely because of the strategic access that such a territory would provide to the Black Sea and would strike a blow against the Turks: a traditional rival of the Polish state. Augustus, characteristically single-minded, devoted the majority of the Polish Army to his war against the Ottomans and thus marched southward to Moldavia where he would ultimately spend much of the war campaigning fruitlessly against Ottoman defenses. However, while Augustus, not being an utter imbecile, had not taken the entire army, but he nonetheless left the remaining Polish military under the command of Johann Matthias von der Schulenberg, who was not anywhere near as skilled as Augustus himself as a military commander. Schulenberg's command proved to be quite untimely as with Augustus the Strong away in Moldavia, the Commonwealth soon found itself under attack from an age-old enemy: the Swedish Empire.
Schulenberg found himself up against the armies of Charles XII, one of the best military commanders in all of Eastern Europe, and against a military genius, Schulenberg himself was terribly lacking. Schulenberg believed that his defeat and capture at the hands of the Russians had made Charles a broken man, and as Charles had the smaller army, he Schulenberg believed he could be beaten. But time and again, Schulenberg was not only disappointed, but outright defeated as Charles proved adept at maneuver warfare: repeatedly forcing Schulenberg to fight on terms that favored Sweden, not Poland. Charles defeated Schulenberg time and again, and even when Augustus finally abandoned his campaign in Moldavia to return to the Commonwealth: Charles and his allies defeated him as well. Decisively finished and unable to resist further, Augustus the Strong was ultimately forced to surrender and sign the Treaty of Altranstädt in 1706: ending his rule in Poland and also consigning Poland to a period of strong Swedish influence. The Swedish rolled back Augustus' institution of a hereditary monarchy and seized the estates of those who had supported Augustus, granting them instead to the Lithuanians who had supported Charles and were promptly rewarded for it.
This began an era of decline for the Polish aristocracy, who not only were stripped of their lands, but also suffered greatly from the plague and from the Great Winter: lords had to flee their estates to escape the plague. And even those who remained safe from the plague's ravages could not escape the failed harvests that accompanied the Great Winter. Many Polish aristocrats did survive this troubled time, but it was a tenuous survival and their finances were in ruins. Many were without estates entirely, and those who did maintain their possessions often had to go into debt to keep themselves financed. Their most natural creditors were the Lithuanian magnates: whose power had only increased after the Great Eastern War, and they were more than happy to lend money to their Polish counterparts. For some particularly unfortunate Polish aristocrats, this would mean the loss of part or all of their remaining estates and assets as they were seized as payment for their debts (as their estates were the only form of collateral available to them), but most simply held on: heavily-indebted, but nonetheless able to press onward. Many Lithuanian magnates also used this opportunity to press their Polish counterparts for favorable marriage contracts in return for financial support. Thus the ranks of the Polish aristocracy thinned somewhat owing to this development.
Elsewhere, the Ruthenians who had played a crucial role in the Commonwealth's politics were similarly growing in strength. The Ruthenians were not large enough in number to challenge the Lithuanians or even the weakened Poles for ascendancy, but within the region of Ruthenia (mostly in the south of Poland), the Ruthenians were growing quite powerful within their own region. And though the city of Lviv had nowhere near the same level of prominence as Krakow or Vilnius, it was often increasingly seen as a sort of third capital within the Commonwealth: Ruthenian support had been crucial in toppling the rule of Augustus the Strong, and it was increasingly clear that the Ruthenians were eager to assert themselves within their region and strengthen their already-substantial autonomy. Separate from Poles and Lithuanians by both language and confession (as the majority of the Ruthenians were Orthodox, not Catholic), they had many distinct beliefs, traditions, and institutions that they sought to uphold.
Lastly, the Commonwealth found itself increasingly the subject of a growing trend of migration from Russia. Although the Swedish invasion had pacified the worst violence and banditry that had developed in Russia after the death of Peter the Mad and the fall of the Romanov Dynasty, many Russians still lived under a tenuous situation and their security could not be taken for granted. Moreover, the traditionally harsh Russian system of serfdom had returned with a vengeance under Swedish rule. This was largely a necessity in light of the massive depletion of Russian farms during what was being called the Second Time of Troubles, as it was absolutely necessary to restore as much of the Russian land to productivity as soon as possible, but for the peasants who had to endure the same awful treatment at the hands of their landlords as they had always had, this was an unacceptable state of affairs. But the Russian state was weak, and the enforcement policies that were traditionally employed to keep peasants on their lands were not as strong as they had once been. There weren't any particularly large peasant revolts in this era: most peasants simply had no desire to fight after suffering so horribly during the Great Eastern War, and with their numbers so depleted they could ill afford to risk losing yet more peasants in a long and bloody revolt. What they did respond with, however, was flight. Russian serfs, particularly those who were near the border of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, fled in droves to the Commonwealth, particularly after the decision was made to relax and in some cases entirely abolish serfdom in the Commonwealth. Lithuanian magnates, were eager to bring more peasants onto their estates and thus quickly accepted the Russian serfs, furthering the economic and demographic recovery of the Commonwealth.
Principality of Transylvania
The Principality of Transylvania had been restored by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1705. The Treaty of Belgrade had been an embarrassing defeat to Austria: reflecting years of fruitless military campaigning and an utter inability by the Austrian military to treat the Hungarian Revolt as a serious threat to Austrian rule rather than simply a minor disturbance. Imre Throkoly, the mastermind of the rebellion against the Hapsburgs, had been seated as the ruler of Transylvania. However, in the year 1716, Throkoly died during a smallpox epidemic that broke out within the capital city of Sibiu, having ruled for eleven years in total. As Throkoly's succession had been guaranteed by the Treaty of Belgrade, the throne passed without dispute to Count Miklos Bercsenyi, who would now assume the title of Prince of Transylvania. Bercsenyi's succession was swiftly recognized by the Ottoman Empire and not long thereafter by the Austrians as well. Beyond that, events in the Principality of Transylvania were of little consequence to Europe. However, within the Danubian region, the creation of Transylvania as a state with complete and uninhibited religious freedom soon caused consequences. While the Ottoman Empire was quite a tolerant state and very effectively co-opted non-Muslim peoples within its empire, the same could not be said of Transylvania's neighbors, notably Austria which while not the most conservative state in Europe nonetheless maintained many relatively conservative laws against non-Catholic religions within Austria. Thus there was a small but pronounced movement of minority confessions, with Jews accounting for the largest portion, into Transylvania. As many Jews in the Austrian Empire were skilled craftsmen, merchants, and financiers, Milkos Bercsenyi took full advantage of this and offered them unconditional free settlement within the capital city of Sibiu, thus greatly accelerating Sibiu's growth and stimulating the Principality's tiny economy with an influx of skilled laborers.
Tsardom of Russia
No nation had suffered so greatly from the Great Eastern War as the Tsardom of Russia. Nor had any one power entered so strong and left so weak. Russia at the commencement of the 18th-century was one of the rising powers of Europe. Russia was not simply talked about as another monarchy that had consolidated power and formed a unified state, but rather as an emerging power, possibly on the same level as Britain, Sweden, or Austria. Russia's initial forays into the cutthroat power politics of the Baltic Sea seemed to confirm this belief: Russia soundly defeated the Swedish Empire of Charles XII and captured Charles himself: extracting a humiliating peace treaty so Carthaginian in its terms that it would have broken Sweden as a power forever. However, although Charles himself signed it, the Riksdag was so incensed by the affront to Swedish honor that they continued the war and were ultimately able to make peace on reasonable terms, albeit ones still generous enough that Russia still benefited.
However, the reversal on the cusp of total victory Russia would experience in its war against Sweden paled in comparison to what it would experience in its war with the Ottoman Empire. Tsar Peter, formerly revered as a brilliant military tactician in Russia and beyond, soon proved the worth of his new title: Peter the Mad. The Tsar had a very personal, and very relentless leadership style in his war with the Ottomans. Despite earnest and frequent entreaties from the Sublime Porte itself to make peace, Peter pressed on in his single-minded determination to defeat the Turks thinking that victory was always just around the corner.
But victory became defeat, and defeat became near-annihilation. Not even Moscow itself was spared as Peter evacuated the city to prepare its defense: condemning thousands of Muscovites to die in the cold of winter as they fled to smaller, less-developed cities that were ill-prepared to shelter the denizens of Moscow. Finally, his men had had enough and Peter the Mad was finally killed in a coup launched by his own men that ended his tyrannical rule once and for all. For a moment, all seemed right as Peter's son, Alexei, rose to the throne and promised a return to traditional Russian values. The Russian people who had suffered greatly for Peter the Mad's obsession with Westernization and modernity approved of this and for a brief period, Alexei seemed the savior of the Russian land. But it was not to last, fate conspired against the survival of the Romanov Dynasty as the Great Winter hit Russia when it was at its weakest. Failed harvests and a famine soon thereafter caused Alexei to flee his own nation. Although this flight would ultimately be unsuccessful, Alexei nonetheless was ultimately deposed and in his place came what seemed like another generation of chaos in Russia. Millions had died as a result of Tatar raiding, disease, and worst of all, famine, nearly all of which were exacerbated or directly caused by the aftermath of Peter the Mad's war against the Turks. And the aftermath of Peter and his son seemed no better, and even worse as the Russian state turned upon itself.
Another Time of Troubles, the likes of which would have almost assuredly broken Russia as a centralized state for decades, seemed a fate too horrible to bear, but as it turned out, Russia was saved from this by the most unlikely of rescuers: the Swedish Empire. Charles XII, later to be known as Charles the Magnificent, had never forgotten his captivity at the hands of the Russians, nor had he forgotten the outrageous treaty that Peter had tried to force upon Sweden when it was weak. Now, however, it was Russia that was weak and Charles had every intention of rectifying that insult. Swedish armies marched on Russia and destroyed anything that stood before them. Rival claimants, more busy fighting each other than fighting actual invaders of Russia could scarcely resist and either surrendered or were simply washed away as the rain washes away the chaff. Karl Fridih, the nephew of Charles XII, was put on the throne as Karl Fridih I of Russia: thus ending the turmoil that followed the collapse of the Romanov Dynasty and securing the Russian state under Swedish influence.
While the newly-won throne of Karl Fridih was still tenuous, and the Russian state still very much recovering from the devastation of the Great Eastern War, the Russian state was in a period of revitalization. As for the direction Russia would ultimately take, it was unknown: as a foreign king, Karl Fridih would depend on the goodwill of Russian nobles to keep his throne, but as the nephew of Charles XII, and as the ruler of a country where absolute monarchy was a strong tradition, Karl Fridih did have the foundation for absolute rule, should he prove willing and capable of doing such a thing.
Zaporozhian Cossacks
The Zaprozhian Cossacks had formed the largest Cossack host in recent memory, so much so that they were increasingly less a traditional Cossack host and in some ways a cohesive state. The Hetmanate had a seat in Kiev itself (which had been rebuilt at remarkable speed after the end of the Great Eastern War) and the Hetman held court within the city walls every year (though, out of keeping with traditional European courts, this was more a place for the people under the rule of the Hetmanate to come forward and petition the Hetman himself for assistance) and had forged a lasting alliance with the Orthodox Church, which threw its support behind the Hetmanate in exchange for state patronage and a recognition of its control over the educational system. Kiev was, after all, the traditional seat of Russian Christendom, and though Moscow had challenged this role greatly, the weakness of the Russian state meant that Kiev found itself in a strong position to claim itself as the premier Patriarchate of Eastern Europe.
The state that was beginning to develop under the Cossacks was an unusual one. Unsurprisingly, the Cossacks had unchalleged authority in all matters from law enforcement to military, and the ruling of a village Cossack unit was in nearly all cases a decisive one when it came to resolving a dispute. However, while the Cossacks organized the society they ruled as little different from that of a military chain of command, there was a surprising flexibility to the system: any man, regardless of social status, religion, or birth, could join the Cossacks if he were capable of enduring their rough lifestyle as well as be an adept rider. This was a universal rule throughout the Hetmanate and even wealthy landowners had to accept that their peasants would be permitted to join the Cossacks if they so chose. In return for this concession however, the Cossacks provided protection and military support to landowners, and provided a surprisingly unobtrusive tax burden for landlords under their rule (though they reserved the right to raise heavier taxes in times of war and during bad harvests). Thus while their serfs were not as securely under their thumb as they had been under the Russian system: landlords under Cossack rule nonetheless saw a great increase in their wealth, ingratiating them to the Cossacks who provided stability and generally left those under them to their own devices provided they fulfilled their obligations to the state.
Persia
Persia had fallen far since the Safavid Dynasty. The era of the "Gunpowder Empires" in Southern and Central Asia had not been favorable to the Persian state: traditionally a major power in the Middle East. Flanked by the Ottomans to the west, and the Mughals to the east, the Persian state found itself dangerously pinned between two powerful foes who constantly encroached upon traditional components of the Persian Empire. The Safavid Dynasty, unified by Shah Ismail I, added an additional complication to the matter. Ismail I was a fanatical adherent of Twelver Shiism and went to great lengths to bring the Persian people under the sway of Shi'a Islam. He officially changed the religion of the Persian state to Shi'a Islam and his successors upheld this: abruptly terminating centuries of religious and linguistic contact between Persia and the peoples of South and Central Asia. The late Safavids were a far cry from the apex of the dynasty under Ismail I, and had successively lost not only territory, but also much power over the Persian state itself. As was common in times of weakness for the Persian state: local peoples such as the Lurs, the Azeris, and others along with local clans pushed back in the hopes of regaining the privileges and authority that they traditionally ceded to a strong dynasty. It was a slow, quiet death, and thus even the Shahs of the Safavid Dynasty would notice their increasing weakness.
Perhaps thinking to win back the power and prestige of the Safavid Dynasty in one fell swoop, the last Safavid Shah declared war against the Ottoman Empire during the Great Eastern War. It was claimed that the Persian Shah was sent a letter by Tsar Peter I himself promising a rebirth of Persia's ancient glory and massive territorial gains at the expense of the Ottoman Empire should he join the war against the Turks, but this belief was largely based on conjecture: Peter the Mad pursued his war with the Turks with single-minded intensity and paid little attention to the affairs of the Middle East, even to traditional Ottoman rivals such as the Persian Empire, it is far more likely that the Shah saw the poor position that the Safavids were in and made one last gamble to save the dynasty.
Ultimately, this decision would only cement the collapse of the Safavid Dynasty that the Shah had doubtless hoped to avoid. Not only was his attack repulsed, but the Ottomans allied with the Mughal Empire to effectively carve up the borderlands of the Persian state between them: Khuzestan, a fertile region populated predominantly by Sunni Arabs, was seamlessly annexed into the Baghdad Vilayet, whereas the Ottomans detached much of Persian Azerbaijan and ruled indirectly through Azeri client-rulers, who were quite happy to exchange corrupt and ineffectual yoke of the Safavid Dynasty for the vigorous state support provided to them by the Ottoman Empire. The Mughals, meanwhile, swept in from the east and carved off Afghanistan and Balochistan: neither of which were particularly rich territories and occasionally proved rebellious, but nonetheless provided valuable strategic buffer space for the Ottoman Empire. These blows were more than the failing Safavids could take, and the Great Eastern War ultimately spelled the end of their dynasty in Persia.
Since then, however, power had been consolidated not further in the hands of local elites and tribal rulers, but by a new and emerging dynasty known as the Qajars. Fath Ali Khan Qajar, an able military commander with a powerful core of loyal soldiers, was rapidly building up power. For chaos and disunity were not natural conditions of the Persian land and the various remnants of the Safavid Army were tired of repeatedly losing land to the encroachment of Persia's enemies. Thus Fath Ali had a powerful army comprised firstly of men completely loyal to him, but also with a growing core of those who saw in his leadership a chance to rebuild the Persia and regain the stolen lands, thus these other soldiers who were not originally loyal to Fath Ali quickly became so. In Isfahan, Fath Ali Khan raised the city as his capital, now to be his own as it had been for the Safavids. He was quick to send out riders to Persia's diminished but nonetheless remaining territories. His offer was simple: swear allegiance to the new Shah or face destruction. The first response he ever received was one of defiance from the Turkomen tribes in Northeast Persia, most of whom had been annexed by the Khanate of Khiva, thus they believed that the new Shah was little different from the old and could be defied just as easily. This assumption proved to be gravely incorrect when Fath Ali himself rode north at the head of an army of tens of thousands and resoundly crushed the Turkomen, beheading the emir who dared defy him and securing a pledge of loyalty from his successor. He kept his armies camped at the border with the Khiva Khanate for three weeks, daring the Khan to venture forth and avenge the Shah's act, but no such reply was ever given. The Khivans had wisely come to the realization that the Qajars were not the Safavids, and that that which they had gained from the conquests of their neighbors could also be taken away. Fath Ali swiftly received several pledges of loyalty and allegiance, many of those who had once worked against the Shah now out of either fear, respect, or admiration chose to work with the Shah, a great boon to the Persian state.
None knew what Fath Ali Khan Qajar planned to do next when he and his armies returned to Isfahan and continued to consolidate his rule and revitalize the Persian state, but suffice to say, the view of Persia as a weak, toothless old lion was perhaps not so justified now as it had once been.
Mughal Empire
As with the Ottomans, the Mughal Empire had gained significantly from the decline of Persian power along with the decline and eventual collapse of the Safavid Dynasty. The disastrous decision by the Safavids to involve themselves in the Great Eastern War had been the last blow to an already-waning empire and their realm had toppled shortly thereafter. The Ottoman Empire extended power over the Sunni Arabs of Khuzestan and the Mughals had swiftly done the same to the Baloch and the Pashtun, though both peoples were merely vassals of the Mughal Empire, not outright territories under the direct rule of the Padishah. Mirwais Hotak, a Pashtun noble who had managed to consolidate a substantial amount of power around himself as Emir of Afghanistan, had defeated the Safavids and consolidated power with Mughal support. Meanwhile, the Khan of Kalat declared Persian rule at an end and expelled the meager Persian presence from Balochistan as well as ending the very thin pretense of remaining under the rule of the Shah.
In 1716, Mirwais Hotak died in his sleep and was smoothly replaced by his son, Abdul Aziz, keeping the Pashtun realm tenuously stable. But the same could not be said of the Baloch. The Baloch were a very traditional people and power in Baloch society rested within the hands of tribal elders to whom the Khan of Kalat was a sort of first-among-equals. The Khan was not the leader of a centralized state and while occasionally a single powerful or charismatic leader could command the respect and loyalty of the other clans, it was always a tenuous command at best, and inevitably the naturally decentralized nature of Baloch politics would begin to reassert itself eventually. And this was the process that started in Balochistan in 1716: the Khan of Kalat found himself less a ruler and more a mediator. He still commanded respect as the Khan of Kalat who had the backing of the Mughal Empire, but the tribal disputes and conflicts that had been ignored in the name of fighting the Persians were now reemerging, and it was unlikely that the Khan of Kalat would be able to craft settlements to the benefit of all parties involved.
The Mughals, for their part, showed little interest or ability to get involved in the clan politics of the Baloch. The goodwill the Padishah had was dependent on the fact that he refrained from interference in these affairs, and as the Khan of Kalat would have weakened his own authority and credibility among the Baloch by requesting Mughal assistance, he would be confined to doing the best he could with the resources at his immediate disposal. Ultimately, however, the fragmentation of Baloch politics affected the Mughals very little: the Baloch were not a traditional component of the Mughal Empire, and as their realm was not terribly wealthy, they were little more than a buffer-state against a resurgent Persia.
The Imperial Election of 1715 was, by the standards of the Holy Roman Empire, a hotly-contested affair. Or at least as hotly-contested as an election with one candidate could be. However, the fact that the Hapsburgs ran a candidate unopposed should not be confused for an absence of intrigue and negotiation behind closed doors. Quite the contrary, the Election of 1715 was almost an open race at the beginning. Joseph I had died and his legacy had been one of failure, incompetence, and misjudgment on the part of the Hapsburgs. The electors in the Imperial College remembered Joseph's inept handling of Imperial affairs: how he reopened previously-resolved issues such as Mecklenberg, and more importantly how his lapses in leadership had cost the Empire dearly. Charles, of course, had been running Austria for some time and by all accounts was doing well to mend the Austrian state and repair its damaged relations with the rest of Europe, but his brother's rule had created many problems for the House of Hapsburg. Other potential contenders, moreover, did not have the same legacy of failure that Charles had to overcome: although it would have been greatly challenging for any Protestant candidate to overcome entrenched opposition to anything other than a Catholic Emperor, the House of Hohenzollern was widely believed to have a credible chance if it mounted a candidacy: Prussia's loyalty to the Empire was not in doubt, and the Prussian Army had performed admirably in all of the engagements in which it had fought recently. After the War of the League of Nancy, many Electors believed that only an Emperor with a strong military backing could solve the crisis of prestige and power that the Holy Roman Empire was facing after the death of Joseph I. Although Maximilian, Joseph's son, would receive the crowns of his father, it was Charles who ran for the Imperial throne, as it would not be viable to put forward an infant as the Hapsburg candidate for the position of Holy Roman Empire.
The other viable candidacy that was widely speculated-upon was that of Maximilian Ii of Bavaria, who was arguably an even more viable challenger to the Hapsburgs than any Protestant candidate. Maximilian was of the House of Wittelsbach, which had done well for itself in recent decades: a Wittelsbach king sat on the throne of Spain, one of Europe's premier powers, and what's more, the Wittelsbachs administered the supremely profitable Spanish Netherlands on behalf of the Spanish Crown. As both a Catholic and an experienced administrator, Maximilian Wittelsbach, as a candidate, likely could have presented a serious challenge to the Hapsburgs. However, as with many such affairs in the Holy Roman Empire, bargains were struck behind-the-scenes. Firstly receiving a demand for the region of Silesia in exchange for Prussia's vote and that of Saxony, a state so strongly under Prussian influence that its vote was practically an extension of Prussia's, the Austrians simply stalled the Prussian offer: not outright rejecting such a proposal, but not entertaining it either. Meanwhile they worked behind the scenes to secure Bavaria's support. The Bavarians could bring a total of three votes to the table: one from themselves, another from the Electoral Palatinate, and from Cologne. They did not necessarily control the other two Electors, but if Bavaria did not mount a candidacy, the other two would likely vote for the Hapsburg candidate instead.
Thus, with an agreement to marry a Wittelsbach to one of Joseph's daughters, and allow a Wittelsbach candidate to administer Tyrol on behalf of the Hapsburg monarchy in much the same way they administered the Spanish Netherlands, Austria secured the support of Bavaria and a pledge not to run against Charles' candidacy. This secured four total votes in the Imperial College for the Hapsburgs, counting their own. Although it was not part of the Austrian agreement with Bavaria, this development also effectively cemented the support of the Electors of Mainz and Trier, who had no intention of voting for a Protestant candidate under any circumstances. And without a candidacy from Maximilian had no reason not to vote for the Hapsburgs.
At this stage the decisive period of the Imperial election was effectively over. With its position now greatly strengthened, Austria responded to Prussia's overtures and flatly rejected the cession of Silesia. Prussia then requested substantial financial payment in return for its vote to which the Austrians acquiesced, thus securing Prussia and Saxony. Technically the last holdout was Hanover, but with the election all but decided, little persuasion was required but Austria nonetheless gave a generous payment to the Hanoverian elector in the spirit of goodwill.
This secured the Imperial College, by a unanimous vote, Charles VI of Austria became Holy Roman Emperor in the year 1715.
Results
Charles VI is elected Holy Roman Emperor, securing the Hapsburg succession.
Charles was victorious by virtue of precedent but more importantly by securing support and being willing to cut deals in exchange for Imperial votes.
Charles becomes Holy Roman Emperor and remains regent of Austria, though he will hand power to Joseph I's son, Maximilian, when he Maximilian comes of age. He will, however, keep the Imperial throne until his death or abdication.
-The uniform of one of Karl Fridih's musketeers: although many former members of the Leib Guard of Peter the Mad were brought on to serve the new Tsar, traditionalism was ascendant in Russia, and thus the uniforms and customs of the old Streltsy Musketeers were enjoying a revival even after Peter's relentless efforts to purge them as a force. This went along with a generally renewed interest in traditional institutions of the Russian monarchy and Russian culture as a whole. However, the new Imperial Guard of Tsar Karl Fridih had only aesthetic similarities to the Streltsy: they were a wholly loyal force recruited mostly from Russian families eager to end the times of chaos that had preceded the new Tsar, and were very personally loyal to the Tsar himself unlike the Streltsy who were loyal only to themselves. Oddly, though the uniforms and customs of the Streltsy were regarded with interest, the Streltsy themselves failed to gain any of their old prominence at the Muscovite court. The traditional green uniforms of the Russian Army, however, were still in the most abundance and thus remained the official uniform of the Russian military.
Russia, a state long in turmoil, had finally been stabilized. While at first glance, the swift reunification of the Russian lands under the auspices of Tsar Karl Fridih must have seemed an improbable development, in reality this was not a surprising occurrence. While Karl Fridih was indeed foreign, there were no particularly viable Russian candidates for the throne, and they had soiled themselves in the eyes of the Russian aristocracy by squabbling over power and fighting each other even while the Russian land descended into chaos. The Russian people, both serfs and nobles alike, were simply tired of neverending chaos and Karl Fridih, though foreign, offered the best chance to put an end to this. Moreover, Karl Fridih's throne was not supported by him alone: Karl Fridih had been brought at the head of an army, and at 70,000 men, the Swedish Army was the strongest of its kind in all of Eastern Europe. The Swedish Army also provided a vital nucleus from which to reorganize and rebuild Russian military power. Everywhere they went, they gathered loyalists, patriots, and former soldiers of Peter the Mad's army around them. These were men who knew how to fight and often still had their armament, but without good leadership or a legitimate central government to fight for, such men were effectively soldiers without a cause. Some had turned to banditry, and were swiftly hanged by the Swedish as an example to others who might have had the same idea, but many joined the Swedish readily when they came near. Thus it was that Charles XII proved the unlikely savior: rebuilding the Russian Army from its tattered remnants and reestablishing a clear chain of command and giving a sense of purpose to the Russian soldiery once again.
From 1713 to 1714, Charles who had effectively defeated all of the rival claimants to the Russian throne now moved eastward to deal with the Siberian revolts instigated primarily by the Muscovy Company. This had prompted brutal uprisings against Russian settlers in Siberia and resulted in the slaughter of hundreds of Russians. The Russians needed to secure Siberia but also craved revenge. Swedish forces under Marshal Adam Ludwig Lewenhaupt aimed to give them exactly that, and for two years of campaigning, the Russians made great progress: a Saxon officer (and an illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong) named Hermann Maurice cut the Siberian Highway between Yakutia and Kamchatka: preventing the Muscovy Company from resupplying the Siberian rebels. And using regional rivers, the Russians advanced and pushed back the Siberian indigenous revolts in all areas. As had been previously noted, rebel success was contingent upon Russia remaining divided and in chaos, now however, a unified Russo-Swedish Army marched against the rebels and they could not withstand it.
From 1715 to 1716, the Russian components of Lewenhaupt' s army were increasingly taking a bigger role in the fighting. Veteran Swedish soldiers and cavalry were always on-hand to help, but the Russians saw the conflict as a personal one and their fighting skill had increased greatly owing to experience in battle as well as diligent training by Swedish officers. The first to have the wrath of the Russians fall upon them were the Komi rebels: the Russians secured the Pechora River slowly and painstakingly from 1713-14. By 1715-16: the Komi were all but destroyed as a rebel force. Remembering how little mercy the Komi had showed to the Russians, their fighters were slain almost to the man, though the Russians resettled women and children in fortified settlements rebuilt by the Russians in their campaign. The Komi Rebellion still existed, but it was the last gasp of a dying struggle, Russian victory was all but assured.
Thereafter, seeing the successes his strategy had had: Lewenhaupt did the same to the Lena River: a larger river but one that was just as vital to reasserting Russian control over Siberia. At the Lena River, Lewenhaupt was now fighting the Yakut people: who were more populous than the Komi and across a larger territory than what was covered by the Pechora. His campaigns in 1713-14 had only secured the southern banks of the Lena, but from 1715-1716, Lewenhaupt had more men and resources at his disposal and could focus the brunt of his forces against the Yakuts. Cossack and Swedish cavalry, aided by Swedish military engineers who could erect bridges at river crossings even while under fire, were like the Mongol hordes of yore: sweeping the infantry of the Yakut rebels before their thundering hooves with no possibility of being turned back. More importantly, Lewenhaupt did as he had done before and ordered new forts raised along captured portions of the Lena River. In this, the Russians garrisoned and reconquered Siberia largely in the same way their ancestors had done for centuries: forts allowed soldiers a strongpoint to defend against attack but also encouraged settlement by Russian migrants who realized that the Russian military could protect them again.
Although Lewenhaupt's campaign did not destroy the Yakut Rebellion as swiftly as it had the Komi Rebellion, it was clear once again that the Yakuts simply would not be able to withstand the forces arrayed against them, and the Muscovy Company would be unable to provide them support, only able to hear reports in distant Kamchatka that the Russians had returned in force to the region, and that all that had been lost to the Yakuts would soon be regained. Thus, with more and more of the Lena River falling under Russian occupation every month, the Yakut Rebellion was undoubtedly living on borrowed time with the Muscovy Company utterly powerless to help them.
The Muscovy Company, meanwhile, remained holed up in the Kamchatka Peninsula in support of the Koryak people. But even Kamchatka, as distant from Russia as it was, was ultimately not an ideal base of operations against the Russians: its seas were only navigable for roughly half the year (during the winter they froze to solid ice) and even the Muscovy Company was starting to feel the effects of shortages brought on by the closure of both Russian and Swedish ports to their trade. The Koryak rebels remained the premier power in Kamchatka, but with the Russians in control of the Siberian Highway, it would not be long at all before they could bring forces into the region. Moreover, the closure of Russian ports to the Muscovy Company had hampered the very reason for the Company's existence: to make profit from trade with Russia. The assets that the Company still had in Russian ports such as Arkhangelsk (though Arkhangelsk had technically been annexed to Sweden) were swiftly taken over by local merchants. This was all acceptable, of course, since by any standard, the Muscovy Company had funded rebellion against the Swedish and the Russian governments, and thus this made them an enemy, leaving their properties and assets to be freely seized by the state or bought out by local merchants at rock-bottom prices. The Muscovy Company had earned the utter hatred of the Russian people, and the distrust of the Swedish state, thus leaving their properties and assets vulnerable.
Results:
The Siberian revolts are being defeated.
The Komi Rebellion is breathing its last, and the Yakut Rebellion is not far behind.
The Koryaks are thus far unaffected, but their prospects in the long-term are quite poor.
On December 14th 1720 in the town of Wiesbaden representatives from the Dutch Republic and the Kingdom of Prussia signed the following Treaty:
The Dutch Republic will purchase the forts of Friedrichsborg and Fort Dorothea in the African Gold Coast for 7200 Ducats from the Kingdom of Prussia.
The Dutch Republic will purchase the fort of Arguin for 3500 ducats from the Kingdom of Prussia.
Prussian settlers will be allowed to remain and continue there duty in the aforementioned colonies. The Dutch Republic agrees to safeguard passage of any Prussian soldiers and families that wish to return to Prussia.
Transfer of control will occur on January 1st 1721
Said forts will be integrated into the Dutch West India Company
Signed:
Pieter Neeskens Dutch Ambassador representing the Dutch Republic
Stadtholder Johan William Friso of the Dutch Republic
Grand Pensionier Simon van Slingelandt of Holland
King Frederick William I of Prussia
In 1717, over fifty years after the VOC carved out a base of opperations on the Cape of Good Hope, smallpox came ashore in dirty laundry from a VOC ship. The slaves charged with washing the laundry came in contact with contagious scabs and the virus moved swiftly through the settlement, infecting Europeans and Africans alike. The disease spread beyond Cape Town out into the countryside, affecting large numbers of Khoikhoi. Eventually the outbreak developed into a pandemic, killing only a few Dutch but as much as 30 percent of the indigenous population. Like other areas of Eurpean colonization, the spread of disease played into the hands of Dutch settlers, as the pandemic seriously undermined Khoikhoi social and political organization.
- Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400-1800 by Charles H.Parker.
Only change is from 1712 to 1717, otherwise historical. Approved by Kurtov
One of the key events in Eastern Asia in the first decade of the 18th century, was for those concerned a minor inconvenience, but it had some consequences across the region as small reactions created a greater trend.
In 1708 the annual Manila galleon, carrying Mexican (and to a smaller degree Peruvian) silver to Manila struck a reef and sunk somewhere in the Phillipinean archipelago. For the Spanish administration this was nothing major, just a great annoyance. The profits the empire made from the east in that year were smaller than usual, but given how the galleon was only one part of the eastern network and the eastern hemisphere was overall less important for Spain no great note was made of it by the Iberian court.
The Great Jump Westwards
The Great Expansion Westwards under the Qing dynasty was as great a project as the Russian conquest of Siberia or the European of America
In China however it had greater impact. The Chinese financial market consumed far more bullion than the Empire could natively produce. This was one of the major reasons, why one of the few things Europeans could actually trade with Chinese was silver. Replacing the silver lost to the Chinese markets by the sinking of the galleon was not something that tore the Empire apart, as demand from Japan, which was a far greater supplier of Chinese silver, simply increased, but it created annoyance for the Kangxi Emperor, as he was forced to use the often complicated ways of obtaining silver from their closed off eastern neighbour.
He had no patience for the way the Japanese went about trading with his own realm, indeed he considered their conduct to be quite impertinent. So as he grumbled his way through the year he wondered in what other way he could bring in the silver he needed.
The solution came to him, when he traveled to the south of the Empire (IOTL that was the last time he visited the south. Here not so much). There he mused over the failure his son's travel to Europe had been. The westerners had simply proved themselves to foreign and indeed barbaric to make for true partners. Yet he saw the riches men brought from far away into his lands and wondered if there was some way he could gain coin for his currency from that. And then he realized it.
Following his dynasty's conquest of China, many Ming loyalists and common men from southern China who were hit by the prohibition on trade migrated across Asia. These people however still for the most part considered themselves Chinese, only living in another land until an eventual return into China was possible. And that was where the Emperor struck.
He declared that now, that the Empire finally was at peace again he would welcome all Chinese who wished to return from the barbarous lands to their great homeland. He further guaranteed that Chinese outside of China would be allowed to keep whatever possessions they had accumulated during their exile, save for the loyalty tax. This however had further implications as he also guaranteed save passage for all Chinese along with their possessions into China. While it was far from explicit and not close to being enforced via diplomacy or arms it was the implication, that China had made itself defender of the Chinese exilants.
The effects went further though. The Kangxi Emperor introduced the "loyalty tax". As most of the exilants were in one way or the other suspicious for the Qing regime any man who returned or "returned" to China, was obligated a tax that included one of two things. Either he made a fixed contribution to the military effort in central Asia. This could range from outfitting a soldier with arms or sending one son of to war, to for richer men, contributing to the creation of new armies and forts. The other option was to contribute to the colonization effort, as for a long time the Quing emperor had incentivized moving to new Inner Asian territories by supplying free carts, equipment, livestock and other such things. A man could therefore choose to either send one of his sons eastwards or pay a amount that would go towards providing those free items. The system further provided that as long as a person had not "fully returned all of his possessions" to China, he would have to pay regular taxes when entering and leaving the land, which also went to one of the two colonization efforts.
Needless to say, that this system worked both as intended and not as intended.
The various Chinese minorities of Asia reacted in various ways to this offer. Lands where the Chinese were largely integrated into society saw small migration back into China, such as Thailand or the Java and Sumatra outback. Regions of sharp Chinese segregation however saw many Chinese decide to head back to China to make a new life forthemselves. Especially parts of the Spanish Phillipines and Batavia saw a bit of a flight of Chinese, due to the restrictive laws these Christian countries had put on Chinese living and marriages. Thus many rich Chinese families reestablished themselves along the souther Chinese coast sometimes bringing with them the new faiths of Islam and Christianity. However, the most impact had the "commuters". These Chinese, in some individual cases also Mestizos from Chinese-Javanese or Chinese-Filipo marriages, used the provision that their possessions would be protected during their "return" to China to establish themselves as intermediaries for Chinese trade with the outside world. While they did this they contributed via the loyalty tax to the Imperial coffers, while also opening somewhat the Chinese market for the Europeans and themselves gained riches. This system would take about ten years to fully come into being, but already now there is a certain ease to it coming into place, as there is already a tradition of male exiles leaving their wives and daughters in the islands while returning to China with their sons. Now this creates a dissimination of family's, but also a greater reach of Chinese culture as family's and structures stretch from Inner asia over the Chinese centre, all the way to Malaka and Batavia.
Early Modern Piracy
The effect of this Chinese development for now is small on Japan. There was a short time during 1708/9 when the currency problems of China lead to a buyout of Japanese silver, threatening a great deflation in Japan, but the Shogun quickly brought the situation under control by patrolling the waters more throughly to prevent smuggling. Thus the main Japanese beneficiaries of the sinking of the Manila Galleon were men who had invested into the silver trade, but got out in time, before the government crackdown on smuggling. One such man was Himura Saburou, who as a third son had made a small fortune in the silver trade, which he used to bribe his way to a permission to trade abroad and bought himself a good ship and crew. A few years later he made a name for himself near the spice islands leading a small group of traders in a defense against Sulu pirates. From this he captured some more ships and started to built a reputation for himself as a pirate/mercenary/trader as many other seafarers were in this period, offering his service to Dutch and Spanish, otherwise trading independently and resorting to piracy if opportunity or crisis demanded.
The Sulu pirate problem however did not end (IOTL the Sulu-Moro conflict endured until the 20th century, so fighting them is really an unwinnable war for either side, I am just mentioning it, since it is a major conflict that has so far not been adressed IG) as these Muslim pirates and their Sultan harassed Filipino and Spanish shipping, sometimes going so far to raid small villages.
The English Massacre
Following increasing tensions between the court of Siam and the god king and after years of the ruler dragging his feet in the demanded expulsion of the English the conflict has flared up into violence as the king sees himself deposed in favour of his son and all Europeans within the capital are massacred. The East India Company will have to respond to this soon.
Ever since 1641 when the Tokugawa Shogunate ejected all the European merchants save for the Dutch, Japan has isolated itself from European influence. During this period of sakoku the shogunate strictly monitored the Dutch to make sure that the evil perils of Western knowledge did not threaten Japanese society and culture. But as the decades progressed the Japanese relaxed these restrictions more and more. This allowed for Western science, mechanical curiosities, and even literature to come into Japan. This process eventually led to Caspar Schamberger developing a Western school of medicine in Japan which was used by the Japanese to deal with those aliments that the native doctors could not. FInally this all culminated in Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune officially relaxing the strict regulation on the influx of Western knowledge and ideas and giving birth to Rangaku or Dutch learning.
Summary of Events
Japanese relax restrictions on importation of Dutch thinking
The Sultanate of Sennar was the leading power of Sudan having defeated Shilluk, Taqali, and even Darfur over the past century. However the state itself was not strong, because the sultanate was internally split between six different tribes that often opposed one another and even at times opposed the Mek. The Abdallahs had once temporarily usurped the Funj Mek. It was this dangerous situation that fostered a need for separation and centralization for the Mek. Badi II, one of the stronger Meks in Sennar history, accomplished both of these goals when he established a strong slave army that was loyal to him alone. This was in many ways similar to what Malway Ismail had done in Morocco. However not all was the same.
In both Morocco and Sennar the sultans had established themselves slave armies. In Morocco this army was leagues stronger than all the tribesmen that had been alienated by the building of such army. But in Sennar Badi II's slave army was only marginally stronger than the six tribes' armies. Also in Morocco Malway Ismail retained strict, complete control of the court. This was seen in how he crushed all opposition that ever rose like his ambitious sons. But in Sennar the Mek's court was riddled with discontented Funj aristocrats and upset ulema who quietly plotted the demise of the Mek.
The strength of Badi II would allow him to die in peace. His successors, though, were lesser men. They allowed Badi II's slave army to deteriorate until it was weaker than any of the armies of the six tribes. And they also allowed the royal court to become even more dominated by the enemies of the Mek. And eventually in 1718 one of them, Ansu II, mishandled the Funj and pushed tensions to the boiling point which sparked a palace coup. During the coup the Funj seized the palace and had the royal executioner execute Ansu II. And to replace the old Mek was new one, Nur.
On the morning of the 25th of December, 1717 people across Europe were sleeping and dreaming about the coming new year. Little did anyone know of the literal coming storm. That night a northwesterly storm hit several of the coasts of the North Sea. Everywhere from the Netherlands to Denmark thousands of gallons were dumped by the sea into the houses and farms. In the Netherlands the floodwaters brushed aside the dykes and flooded Groningen, Amsterdam, and Haarlem. In Germany houses and villages were literally swept away as the storm surge rushed forward and then drew back. Throughout the southern and eastern shores of the North Sea devastation was wrought.
In the following days the damage was assessed. The bodies quickly mounted in numbers soon reaching thousands dead by drowning, hypothermia, etc. The commune of Butjadingen lost three tenths of its populace to the flood and its aftermath. And the lack of bodies was also huge as thousands reported missing family members, presumbably swept away by the flood. In the village of Werdum in East Frisia of the 284 missing people only 32 were found in the following months. In total some 10,000 to 14,000 were lost as a result of the flood, at least 9,000 in Germany and Denmark and maybe 2,500 in the Netherlands.
But the damage exceeded that. The farmers of the region reported over 100,000 farm animals were drowned, killed by exposure, or taken out to sea by the flood. This devastated the farming communities that dotted the North Sea's coasts. Worse yet hundreds of villages and houses were just gone, completely destroyed by the waves with only driftwood left of them. Indeed thousands of houses were lost, just 900 in East Frisia alone. And most horribly the dykes and levees around the region were ruined. Some were able to be repaired, but many were forever destroyed.
All of this damage was a tragedy for the communities. Made worse by the winter and its coldness. But God was done with these poor farmers just yet. Two months later another huge storm surge hit the region. This wrecked many repair and reconstruction efforts. It also forced the abandonment of some resettlement ventures as it washed away supplies and proved some locations no longer viable for sustainable habitation. In many cases the damage of the two floods was so severe that a great effort was required to restore the region.
Summary of Events
Christmas Flood wrecks South and East North Sea coasts
14,000 humans dead; 100,000 animals dead; thousands of houses gone; many dykes destroyed
Second flood hits in February and makes things worse
Lots of efforts for repair and resettlement damaged or even ruined
Second Time of Troubles
Final Judgement Russian cavalry
The previous years of fighting had steadily seen the Russo-Swedish army beat down the Siberian rebellions. The Komi were all but destroyed in the most recent years as an cohesive fighting force, but they continued to exist as a painful insurgency. While the Yakuts had suffered a severe reverse with the lost of their Lena River. Only the Koryaks remained in control of the core of their rebellious region, but that was more as a result of the fact that the Russo-Swedish force had for the most part ignored them. In total the once hopeful rebellions were teetering on collapse.
In the spring of 1717 Lewenhaupt and his command once again chose to split to deal with the various rebellions as they had done earlier. The three armies consisted of a small contingent under the command of Nikolai Grigorovitj von Werden, tasked with finishing the Komi rebellion; a larger contingent under Hermann's Russian replacement, Peter Lacy, opposed the Yakut rebellion; and finally the main army under Marshal Lewenhaupt was to vanquish the Koryak rebellion.
In the west, General von Werden completed the destruction of the Komi rebellion. With the Komi having lost control of the Pechora and being split into separate locales von Werden was able to operate with impunity. A series of devastating raids against the villages of the Komi were orchestrated. These raids involved brutal massacres that meant to break the back of the Komi people. And they, in conjunction with the disease that hugely increased contact with the Russians and Swedes had brought, did just that. By mid 1718 the Komi rebellion was over and the Komi people were absolutely laid waste to.
To the east, General Lacy ended the Yakut rebellion. The loss of the Lena River took a toll upon the Yakut rebellion's mobility and also split the rebellion. But the rebellion retained strong control in those two separated regions. But it turned out that mattered little as Lacy turned out to be equal of his predecessor, Hermann Maurice. Over the course of the campaign he repeatedly destroyed the Yakut forces. And the Yakut dearth of powder led them to abandon their guns and take up their bows which simply spelled disaster. They also were afflicted by disease just as the Komi were. By the spring of 1719 Lacy had extinguished the Yakut rebellion.
Furthest east, Lewenhaupt conquered the Koryak rebellion. So far the Koryaks had had limited interaction with the Russo-Swedish armies. Thus they were well stocked and entrenched when Lewenhaupt attacked them. But they suffered from a major problem. Unlike the Komi and Yakuts the Koryaks did not number tens of thousands of people, but only 10,000 people. Which was less people than the amount of soldiers that Lewenhaupt's individual army contained. Thus though the Koryaks had some advantages from the ignorance of before they also had a major disadvantage.
In the beginning months of the invasion of Kamchatka the fierce Koryaks contested the peninsula heavily the Russo-Swedish invaders. This contest saw the Russo-Swedish army take heavy casualties, with a higher casualty rate than at any other time during the Siberian campaigns. Yet the Russo-Swedish soldiers also managed to take many Koryaks with them. These abominable casualties ravaged the Koryak army which was unable to replenish itself as Lewenhaupt's army did. And when the Koryak army started to refuse to engage the Russo-Swedish one, Lewenhaupt took to torching the Koryak villages. This ended up only stiffening the resistance, but by the summer of 1720 the ruination that the Koryaks had suffered virtually rendered them extinct. In the end the Koryaks had fought to the bitter end, and bitter it was indeed.
Across Siberia the rebellions had all fallen by the end of 1720. The stronger, better armed, etc. Russo-Swedish armies had gone through several hardships to achieve victory, but victory was never in doubt. The Siberian rebellions did not have the strength to defeat the Russo-Swedish armies. And when the Muscovy Company abandoned all but the Koryaks they doomed the Komi and Yakuts, who did not even have enough gunpowder for their limited amount of guns. Also the disease that broke out as a result of a skyrocketing in the number of interactions with Russians and Swedes devastated the Siberian populations. Ultimately it was military impossibility for the Siberian rebellions to win.
The implications of the eventual failure of the Siberian rebellions are large. Firstly the Muscovy Company ruined itself. The Muscovy Company had gambled on establishing a protectorate or even a few in Siberia. At the time it was wise gamble with Russia in complete shambles. But the unexpected invasion of Karl the Magnificent completely changed everything and with it the fortunes of the Muscovy Company plummeted. Yet after already sinking everything and more into this Siberian scheme the Muscovy Company had little choice but to double down and continue sink money into the venture. It's eventual failure meant that all of that cash had been expended for no gain. This spelled the doom not only for the company's effort to establish itself as trading power in the Pacific, but its ability to function as a company at all. It is currently pleading with the Parliament to save it, but its doubtful they will.
For the indigenous Siberians the defeat was even worse. While their supporters in London were bankrupt, the Siberians were far worse off. Tens of thousands of Siberians had been killed during the fighting as a result of occasionally the fighting but more often disease and the deliberate attempts of the Russians to annihilate the Siberian resistance. The former core of the Komi and Yakut societies, the Pechora and Lena Rivers were under heavy Russian control and most of the Komi and Yakut communities on or near the rivers had been destroyed. And the Koryaks were all but completely vanquished, were mere fractions of the population surviving the brutal fighting.
Finally the Russians were greatly affected by the rebellions' aftermath. At the end of the rebellion there were thousands of Russian soldiers stationed throughout Siberia. And there were also tens of forts that had been established during the rebellions and were still maintained. Meanwhile the Tsardom of Russia's treasury had little funds to spare to pay the soldiers their wages and all their backpay after putting so much money into rebuilding and remilitarizing the west. These two facts combined to form the basis for the Eastern Answer.
As a result of the crippling of Russian ambitions in the west many Russian nobles and generals wondered what was next. The eventual answer to that question was the Eastern Answer. A group of Russian boyars and nobles had come to realize that Russia's failures to expand west over the decades was a sign from God that Russia's destiny was not in the west, but the east. They saw further truth in how their Westernized Tsar Peter's reign ended so horribly. Instead God wished for Russia to expand eastward with great victories and thousands of miles of expansion standing as truth to this testament.
The Eastern Answer eventually received the blessing of the Tsar and his regent, Karl XII, when its proponents reasoned that the best way to pacify the region and compensate the soldiers was to pay them with large land grants in Siberia. These generous grants established tens of settlements across Siberia as the soldiers were settled down near strategic points such as along Siberia's major rivers. And as planned it served both to reward the soldiers and ensure continued control of Siberia as the new Russian soldier settlers became a local militant class in these regions responsible for collecting yasak and keeping control of the Siberians like the Siberian Cossacks were in other parts of Siberia. But as time passed this would prove to be just the beginning for Russia's eastern dream.
Summary of Events
Russian split to deal with rebellions
Russians destroy rebellions
Lots of Siberians are dead
Russians want to focus on the east instead of west
Ever since the Treaty of Shahjahanabad in 1709 the Mughal Empire allowed the British East India Company a swathe of privileges in return for their support of Muhammad Azam Shah's succession to the Mughal throne. These privileges included exempting the British East India Company from any form of taxation and allowing it to lease land for dirt cheap. But most importantly the British East India Company was granted Diwani rights in the regions of Bengal and the Carnatic, which basically made the British East India Company into a powerful, autonomous state within the Mughal Empire.
Many within the Mughal Empire were outraged by the degree of power and wealth that the Padishah had granted the British East India Company. They could not understand why some pale merchants from the west were being granted two of the Mughal Empire's richest regions. And the two Nawabs of Bengal and the Carnatic were furious that they had been stripped of the ability to collect the tax. But remembering his father and predecessor Aurangzeb, they all held their tongues and prayed that the Padishah came to his senses after he finished vanquishing his brothers.
After the Padishah vanquished his brothers and secured his succession he did not even grace the British East India Company with a thought. Instead to the misfortune of the British East India Company's enemies he focused himself entirely to establishing his rule and beginning his reign. This involved suppressing the Rajputs who had risen against him and distributing titles to his most loyal supporters. Still those would would have the British East India Company gone held their tongue.
As the years progressed those who had once held their tongues saw their will weaken. However they feared to petition the Padishah alone, for the British East India Company was proving effective in bringing in lots of money for the treasury and its officers training the army were producing a strong Mughal army. Thus they came to believe that only a strong collective of Mughal officials and officers would convince the Padishah and this folly. And slowly over the years this group coalesced.
Then in 1719 everything changed. The Padishah, Muhammad Azam Shah, died. And with his eldest most able son and crown prince, Bidar Bakht, fighting the Persians in the west a succession feud broke out in India. This meant his seven sons would all feud over the throne and each of them would be in search of strong supporters. The British East India Company and anti-BEIC coalition ironically both threw their support behind the same candidate, Bidar Bakht.
The irony died when Bidar Bakht returned home. After quickly coming to terms with the Persians Bidar Bakht marched home with his army as fast as he could. The many of Nawabs and Subahdars soon announced their support the popular prince. And when he took Agra in a quick, stunning fashion the majority of them fell in line. Finally Bidar Bakht marched into Shahjahanabad to find his brothers and half brothers still feuding over the throne. Amidst their instability Bidar Bakht destroyed his brothers and had them executed. Thus bringing a quick, decisive end to the succession crisis.
After seizing the throne Bidar Bakht, coronated as Shah Alam, first focused on securing the whole Mughal Empire as his own and ensuring that the more unruly subjects did not even dare to oppose the fearsome Shah Alam. Eventually when Shah Alam had stablized his empire he turned towards the issue of the British East India Company. Representatives from both sides would throw themselves at the feet of the new Padishah, prostrate as they presented their petitions. One one side Nawab Quli Khan and Nawab Daud Panni Khan were painting a picture of the evils of the west and on the other side the Company officials were showing staggering numbers of British efficiency. After days of patient comtemplation Shah Alam made his ruling.
The Treaty of Shahjahanabad, was the treaty of Azam Shah, not of Shah Alam. Thus Shah Alam considered it null and void and with it all of the rights that the Company had been granted. This shattered the spirits of the Company officials in Shajahanabad. But then Shah Alam followed by offering them a new Treaty of Shahjahanabad. In essence it granted all the same rights as the previous one, except it lacked any Diwani rights for the British East India Company. Much better than nothing, but still worse than before.
Summary of Events
Party grows in response to British East India Company's threatening upsurge
Azam Shah dies
Succession crisis ensues
Anti-BEIC and BEIC both sponsor Bidar Bakht
Bidar Bakht, strong, able, and popular, returns home and destroys his brothers
Bidar Bakht now Shah Alam, revokes Treaty of Shahjahanabad
New treaty offered with everything, but Diwani rights
To: Leadlenhall Street
From: Indian Office Secret
What would you have us do? Our suggestion is accept the new treaty. It is a good offer. Of course it is not as profitable as the previous treaty, but the alternative is nothing or an expensive war
Colbert, the French Controller-General of Finance, for nearly twenty years until his death in 1683 had absolutely hated the Marseillais merchants. He viewed them mischievous miscreant merchants "who care for nothing but the little profit they can make, and who abuse the liberty that they have been given up to now to ship money as they like to the Levant, do so against ... the universal and fundamental laws of all states...". And he blamed their trade practice of injecting counterfeit currency into the Levant, correctly, as detrimental to the French economy.
Over three decades later Colbert's nephew, Nicolas Desmarets, also finds himself hating the Marseillais merchants with a fiery passion. For Desmarets the trade practice of the Marseillais merchants he took issue with was their blatant bribery of customs authorities and numerous infractions on importation laws. This trade practice was obviously detrimental to the French economy as well as the intregrity of the Marseille government. But more threatening was its danger to the demography of the wholee of Southern France.
In 1720 the Grand-Sainte-Antoine arrived at Marseille. It had come from Sidon in the Levant, stopping at Smyrna, Tripoli, and Cyprus on its way. The last of which was infested with plague. Which found its way on to the ship when it killed several members of the crew and even the ship's surgeon. When Tuscans discovered the ship's plague hazard it was barred from docking at Livorno. And when it arrived at Marseille the port authorities did not think twice before ordering it to the lazaret where it could wait out any plague.
While the Grand-Sainte-Antoine waited at the lazaret a customs officer received a visit from the Marseillais merchants. These merchants had worked very hard and paid a lot of money to get that cargo of the Grand-Sainte-Antoine to Marseille before the medieval fair at Beaucaire. And if the ship's silk and cotton were not at the fair on time those merchants stood to lose a lot of money. But if the port authority officer was willing to write the ship a clean bill of health they would make a great profit and the officer would receive an adequate award.
That officer turned out to be a virtuous man who refused the Marseillais merchants' offer. He was also bold as he came out and denounced the attempt at bribery, reporting to Paris. This was quickly followed by an explosion of plague at the lazaret, originating from the Grand-Sainte-Antoine. That outbreak that ravaged the many ships at the Lazaret devastated many merchants and temporarily caused issues for Marseille's trade. But it was a better outcome then the outbreak of plague in Marseilles that would have occurred had that officer folded to pressure and accepted the bribe.
When news of this incident spread their was an outcry of anger over the incident. In Paris Nicola Desmarets and Louis XV found themselves bombarded by the issue, which quickly took on the name of the Salmon Affair (named after one of the merchants, Henri Salmon, involved in the bribery attempt). The entanglement of plague with the issue forced many of the usual supporters of the Marseillais merchants to stay their mouths or even oppose the merchants. It was absolute disaster for the merchants of Marseille.
Summary of Events
Plagued ship comes to Marseille and is sent to the lazaret
Merchants try to pressure ad bribe port authority into giving the ship a bill of health and letting its cargo be unloaded
Officer refuses and comes out against the merchants
Plague from ship explodes and kills most of the sailors at the lazaret
Merchants now coming under fire due to the involvement of plague with the bribery issue
On 29 September of 1717 the ground of Antigua, Guatemala began to shake wildly as the earth quaked. Within minutes buildings were crumbling and the sky was raining debris and dust. Eventually when the dust cleared the Spanish colonials would discover that the once grand capital of the Kingdom of Guatemala was destroyed. Some 3,000 buildings had been obliterated by the shaking of earth. And many had died, trapped beneath the rumble. So devastating was this all that the colonial government is considering moving from Antigua and starting fresh, somewhere more favorable.
Summary of Events
Earthquake in Antigua
3,000 buildings destroyed, town wrecked
New capital under consideration
To: Council of the Indies
From: Kingdom of Guatemala
What course of action does the Council wish to take?
The Pirate Round had once been one of the greatest pirate routes in the entire world. Pirate crews that were formed all over the Atlantic would sail eastward, around the Cave of Good Hope to Ile Sainte-Marie. There they replenished their supplies before sailing either to the Red Sea or to India. Either offered a number of prey with valuable prizes. And both allowed the pirates to ravage the rich ships and convoys of the Mughal Empire's trade. This route also saw much piracy against the European trading companies.
Since its heyday the Pirate Round in the 1690s has declined significantly. But recent years have seen an upsurge in its use for depredations. The domination of the British in the Caribbean has meant that many French and British privateers who once profited greatly off the continuous British and French wars had to find a more fertile hunting ground. This combined with the upswing in Maratha piracy, which is starting to hit the British East India Company hard, led many pirates to migrate east in search of fortune.
With piracy once more on the rise the Dano-Norwegians, who were not far off in the Comoros Islands, felt the bite of the outlaws as their merchants were continually attacked by them. The exact same situation was also experienced by Denmark-Norway's allies in Portugal and the Netherlands. The mutual fear of the effect of piracy upon the trade of the three nations led them to found a powerful coalition fleet. The joint fleet was assigned the duty of snuffing out the Pirate Round's main base of the Ile Sainte-Marie definitively.
The fleet sailed to the port of Ambodifotara, where the totality of pirates on the island of Ile Sainte-Marie were located. Then the pirate ships were blockaded in by the joint fleet, which's frigates began to bombard the town and the Ile aux Forbans with round shot and carcass shot. This destroyed the wooden houses and some of the ships which were even broken apart by the hard hammering hits of round shot or put ablaze by the incendiary nature of carcass shot. Of those ships which tried to escape, few were successful. May were sunk or crippled before they broke loose of the blockade. After which they encountered the faster ships of the joint fleet which were lying in wait for any ships that ran the main blockade.
Once the pirate fleet was vanquished and the town was severely beaten the joint fleet deployed its marines to finish the job. The marines thoroughly went through the town killing any pirates who resisted. The weakened pirates tried to fight back, but their chaotic situation made this resistance futile. And after hours of cleaning up the town the marines would build gallows the hang all those pirates captured. Well other detachments did their best to render the port uninhabitable. After a few days the joint fleet would depart from the island, leaving tens of pirates hanging as a testament to the accomplishment of the joint fleet.
The ease of the joint fleet's success comes from the superior naval experience, skill, and technology. This superiority completely dominated the ragtag, disorganized pirates. The implications of the victory seem minor, but indeed are vast. By extinguishing the Ile Sainte-Marie the joint fleet not only broke the keystone of the Pirate Round, but also demonstrated to the pirates what would come of their deeds if they continued to raid the region. This led to a decline in western piracy. However Maratha piracy continues to hammer the British East India Company and occasionally the United and Portuguese companies.
Summary of Events
Upswing in Pirate Round
Denmark-Norway, Portugal, and the Netherlands team up to destroy the pirates
Joint fleet destroys the pirates at Ile Sainte-Marie
Saxon Succession Crisis
Double Trouble Frederick Augustus' daughters
Frederick Augustus would be filled with joy when his wife, Fredericke Charlotte was discovered to be with child not long after their marriage. For the next ten months he anxiously waited for the arrival of his first child, who he prayed would be a boy, an heir. Finally when the day came in January of 1717 Frederick Augustus would watch as God gave to him, two twin daughters. It was disaster for Frederick Augustus. Now instead of an heir he had two daughters with equal claims to the inheritance, as Wettin tradition dictated.
With the predicament of twin daughters Frederick Augustus and his wife furiously got back to work on siring an heir. Eventually she took with child in 1718 and the following summer she would give birth to a son, Johann. This was met with jubilation throughout the Electorate of Saxony as many prayers had been answered. While in the Ernestine duchies there was horror that their chance to inherit great wealth and land was gone. Then the child became ill. And over the course of a few weeks Johann's health rapidly deteriorated and eventually the baby died.
After the death of their son, Frederick Augustus and Fredericke Charlotte once more went to work. However they failed to conceive another child just yet. Thus all the elector had was two daughters. Even though Frederick Augustus was yet to give up hope on a son he already began preparations should he continue to fail. As he openly disdained the Ernestines who he saw as greedy, indulgent, degenerates who were stripped of the Electorate for a reason he instead looked to his daughters. Within the Wettin family though it was uncommon for the claim to be passed down through the female line, it was not unknown. As a result Frederick Augustus II knew that through his daughters' marriages he might prevent an Ernestine from inheriting the electorate or worse, the electorate being split up among the Ernestines.
Among the Ernestines the claimants almost all of them had financial difficulties. For Frederick of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Ernest Augustus of Saxe-Weimar, and Ernest Frederick of Saxe-Hildburghausen this was the result of absorbent spending on palaces and gardens. And for John Ernest of Saxe-Courg-Saalfeld this was due to the limited revenue of the duchy. Thus all four of them were greatly interested in receiving at least a piece of the wealth Saxon Electorate. This way they could not only pay off their debts but live luxuriously.
Within the Ernestine duchies a different succession crisis had already broken out over the issue of the territories of Coburg-Eisenberg-Römhilder Erbstreit, a collection of Ernestine duchies that had become leaderless over the years due to the extinctions of certain branches of the Ernestine family. The claimants of Frederick of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Ernest Frederick of Saxe-Hildburghausen, and John Ernest of Saxe-Courg-Saalfeld have all presented their claims to the lands to the Emperor Charles VI and await his judgement on the issue.
Current Claimants
John William III, Duke of Saxe-Eisenach
Ernest Frederick I, Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen
Ernest Augustus I, Duke of Saxe-Weimar
John Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
Ernst Ludwig I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen
Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg
Summary of Events
Frederick Augustus has twin daughters
Frederick Augustus has short lived son
Coburg-Eisenberg-Römhilder Erbstreit issue among Ernestines
Qajar Invasion of Balochistan Qajar army in Balochistan
The past several years have seen the Qajar Dynasty of Persia consolidate its hold over Persia. It has steadily centralized power in its hands while weakening the once strong regional authorities and autonomous governors. The Qajars also steadily worked to rebuild the Persian army around a core formed from the once the ad hoc regional army of Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar. All of this has combined to equal a regenerative Persia that is recovering from the recent decades of misgoverning under the last of the Safavid Dynasty.
After these many years of regrowth Persia finally felt strong enough to began to reassert itself. For this purpose it put its sights on the Baloch tributary of the Mughal Empire. The reason the Persians chose the Balochs over the Afghans or the Khivans was simple. The Baloch's were a bunch of disunified internally conflicting tribes that could easily be dealt with. Meanwhile Khiva was unified under a single Khan nd the Emirate of Aghanistan was unified under the Emir and also had quite treacherous terrain to assail.
The war ensued as Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar's large army invaded Balochistan. The various tribes flailed in the face of the Persian army. Many tribes were dismissed or swept aside by the Persian army as it secured strategic points and major hubs. This rapid collapse of Balochistan provoked a response from the Mughal Empire which was not interested in seeing Qajar Persia rebuild what Safavid Persia had lost. Thus Azam Shah had an army sent into Balochistan to repel the Persians and reestablish order.
The Mughal army after traversing over a great distance finally reached Balochistan. Then marching further it eventually came close to the Qajar army near Pasni. Then the less fatigued and more nimble Persian army pounced on the exhausted Mughal army. The Mughal army was woefully underprepared for engagement so soon. Hence its camp was quickly flooded by Qajar troops. With the camp alight and the army in complete chaos the Mughal commander ordered the retreat and staggered out of his own camp.
The decisive, shattering, defeat at the Battle of Pasni was an absolute disaster for the Mughals. Since the broken Mughal army was retreating hundreds of miles as it tried to regather itself the Qajar army was able to seize huge swathes of Balochistan unhindered. It was only the arrival of one of the Mughal Empire's best generals, Crown Prince Bidar Bakht that saved the city of Kolachi. At Kolachi the Crown Prince would join the army and was able to rally it before marching northward to deter the Persian invasion.
At first, Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar gave Bidar Bakht the respect he deserved and slowly ceded ground to the prince until Fat'h could secure a battle on his terms. But then the new Emir of Afghanistan, Mahmud Hotak, answered the calls of Bidar Bakht to enter the war and marched south with a fresh Afghan army. Pressed by the threat an envelopment the Qajars relinquished more and more land to Bidar Bakht, all the while outmaneuvering Mahmud Hotak. And then Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar stumbled into a battle he shoken have.
In a grevious miscalculation Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar attacked Bidar Bakht's army believing that he had outmarched Mahmud Hotak. His army would prove a good match against Bidar Bakht's, which was showing itself to be capable of more than muddling around in their pants as they did at Pasni. But the Mughal tactician slowly turned the tides as he ate away at the Qajar left and center. And then the battle was over when Mahmud Hotak's army arrived. With all due haste Fat'h ordered the retreat, but it was too late not to feel the sting of the Afghan cavalry. Ultimately Fat'h retreated in good order.
The defeat forced Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar to give up more land as he had to wait for reinforcements from Isfahan to arrive. Eventually he was presented with grand miracle. Just days after being reinforced by another Persian army, news hit Balochistan that Muhammad Azam Shah, the Mughal Emperor, was dead. As a result a succession dispute had broken out within the Empire. And if Bidar Bakht did not run home he risked losing that dispute to one of his brothers. All in all Bidar Bakht had to sue for peace and Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar was in a position of great power.
The Treaty of Bela would be signed days after word of the death of Azam Shah. Bidar Bakht did not want to risk losing any time in the succession crisis that was unfolding. Thus he readily agreed to cede to Persia the vast amount of Balochistan, even though the Persians did not even occupy all that land at this point. All he retained was everything east of the Bela, which was incorporated directly into the Mughal Empire. This was meant to serve as a buffer for the port, Kolachi. A very generous peace for the Persians, but a worthwhile one for Bidar Bakht as he would go on to become the next Mughal Emperor, Alam Shah.
In the end the Persian victory was not one of arms but of diplomacy. Nonetheless the Qajar army showed itself to be a stronger, more moderized one than the Safavid army. Though there was still room for improvement it was clear that the Qajars were once more a formidable force. Having won the Battle of Pasni and only losinga major battle to Bidar Bakht, they were able to escape without suffering too much. These performances are very much a good sign for the once completely worthless Persian army. And it is not as if anyone could predict the results of a third battle.
The implications for the Persian victory are significant. Domestically the Qajar victory further secured their hold on the throne and over Persia. And though within the Mughal Empire some view Alam Shah's cession of Balochistan poorly, other thigns have served to cement his position. The good performance of Qajar army means that the Qajars may be ready to turn to other target after testing themselves out in Balochistan. However the Mughal Empire's commitment to defending its border buffer states shows that Afghanistan is not an option. And with the strength of the Ottoman Empire it seems likely that the Qajar army will next turn on the Khivans. A victory there would be extremely important in Persia's resurgence.
Summary of Events
Qajars invade Balochistan
Qajars bet the Baloch tribes
Mughals move in to defend Balochistan
Qajars defeat Mughals at Pasni
Bidar Bakht deployed
Bidar Bakht rallies Mughals and chases off Qajars
Afghanistan joins the fray on Mughal side
Mughals defeat Qajars
Qajar reinforcements arrive
Third matchup prevented by death of Azam Shah and beginning of a succession crisis
The Want of Kings
Auribus Teneo Lupum Battle of Varago
Any hope that the new century would be one of peace and prosperity, in contrast to the grimdark 17th century, was quickly squashed. Although the first few months of the new century saw peace declared between the Ottoman Empire and Tsardom of Russia, the peace among others did not hold long at all. Within a year the whole of Europe found itself consumed by two separate major wars. In the west, the question of the Spanish Succession rocked the careful balance established by the Nine Years' War. And in the east, a coalition of nations sought to settle the score with Sweden as the Great Eastern War's first phase opened.
The War of the Spanish Succession (1700-1704) is an interesting one. It began when a treaty, the Treaty of Partition (1698), was broken not by Louis XIV, but by his rivals in London, Madrid, and Vienna. With the Treaty of the Hague torn to shreds, Louis refused to recognize the claim of Joseph Ferdinand to the throne of Spain or of Archduke Charles to the throne of Milan. Instead, he launched forth his armies and called upon his scant allies of the Kingdom of Portugal and Duchy of Savoy. And in response, William III reassembled the Grand Alliance.
In the war that followed there was much that was expected, but even more that was not. The naval dominance of the Grand Alliance surprised no one. But the extent to which it was used did, with British campaigns from Angola to Newfoundland. All of these campaigns save for the Azores, eventually ended in success for the Grand Alliance. In fact, it was a spectacle of success as the British, Dutch, and Spanish defeated the French empire at every corner of the world but India, conquering the vast expanses of Louisiana and Quebec. The war on the Continent did not have the same success for the Grand Alliance. Although the Grand Alliance saw plenty of victories such as the great Colmar and Barcelona, the French had even more like Lille, Piave Lines, and of course Koblenz. In the end, the war was surprisingly brief at less than four years, with Austria and Portugal quitting it even earlier due to their shocking defeats. What brought about the end of the war was the sense of impending financial doom and the lack of tolerance for any more bloody battles within both France and the Grand Alliance. The Treaty of Baden, which ended the bloody war, forced France to cede away its colonial empire and ended its aspirations of global dominance. But in Europe France and Savoy, soon to be the Kingdom of Lombardy, were able to carve up Italy for themselves.
Somewhat separate, but at the same time very entangled with the War of the Spanish Succession were three conflicts: the Brunswicker Wars, the Jacobite Uprising, and the Hungarian Rebellion. The first, the Brunswicker Wars, were a series of foolish conflicts started by the Elector of Brunswick-Luneburg in an attempt to expand his realm. This couple of wars was vastly surprising because Brunswick-Luneburg launched them using the funds Austria had given them to raise an army to support the Imperial war effort. Even when Austria explicitly told the electorate to halt — it continued on. The debacle ended with a humiliating defeat for Brunswick-Luneburg at the hands of Denmark-Norway and deferred any idea of Brunswicker power for over a decade. The second conflict, the Jacobite Uprising, was a string of Jacobite rebellion in Ireland and Scotland. In hindsight, there was never any chance of victory for the rebels, but as a result of the complacency of Britain in dealing with the rebellion, it managed to score several victories and survive for several years. The ending, however, was the unfortunate capture of the last Jacobite, King James III. The final, Hungarian Rebellion, began during the War of the Spanish Succession but later became part of the Great Eastern War when Austria joined the conflict. The rebellion's start came about as the result of French intrigues. Even though tFrance's initial ally Rakoczi was executed a rebellion still ensued. The rebellion did its job when it forced a redeployment of Austrian and Saxon soldiers from Italy, which played a pivotal role in the French victory at the Piave Lines. However, the French showed no love for the Hungarians when they left them out of France's peace with Austria entirely. Instead, the Hungarians had to find a new benefactor, the Sublime Porte.
The Great Eastern War is also fascinating. It also began in contrast to the typical trend as the first phase started with Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Poland-Lithuania declaring war upon Sweden, rather than Sweden attacking them. The allies hoped to take advantage of its perceived weakness of the boy-king Charles XII. Oh, how wrong they were. Charles first humbled Denmark-Norway at Humlebæk. Then he trounced Russia at Narva. And after that, it seemed certain he would crush Poland-Lithuania and coerce Russia to acquiesce to his demands. But then came the ill-fated invasion of Russia which saw him exhaust his resources and drive his army deep into Russia, in the middle of raputitsa and then winter. The end result of this fiasco was Charles' defeat and capture at Trud. At that time it seemed certain that Sweden would surrender, and Sweden would have had Tsar Peter not proven to be completely unreasonable in his demands. This lack of sound reason not only led to Sweden fighting on but also provoked Poland-Lithuania to quit the war with Sweden and for the Sublime Porte to join the war in support of the fledgling Kingdom of Sweden. Thus began the second phase of the Great Eastern War in the summer of 1701.
The second phase of the war lasted from 1701 to late 1704. It is often called the Riksdag Phase due to the Riksdag prominence in Sweden at that time. In contrast to that name the Riksdag quickly exited the war. Under the Riksdag, Sweden threw back the Russian invasion of Estonia but then made a truce with the Russians even though no great threat was posed to Sweden nor Estonia. Sweden also made peace with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and did nothing to stop the Commonwealth from attacking the Ottomans. Thus Sweden abandoned its savior the Sublime Porte as soon as it possibly could. Yet this proved to not have any great effect on the Ottoman war effort as the second phase was initially a complete Ottoman triumph. In Russia, the Ottoman armies and Crimean hordes overran the Cossacks as the war began and then swiftly mastered Southern Russia. In Moldavia, the Ottoman army and the local Moldavian one were able to hold down the armies of Augustus II. In Hungary, Thokoly's rebellion kept the Austrians occupied. In Serbia, the Austrians foolishness prevented them from achieving significant success. Only in Aegean did the Holy Alliance cope well as the Venetians edged out the Ottomans. And to the east in Persia, the Holy Alliance's attempt to distract Ottoman on the periphery failed when the Mughals destroyed the Safavids in support of the Ottomans. All of this combined to equal an unrelenting victory for the Sublime Porte, but in 1704 the Ottomans' luck ran out.
In 1704 Charles XII was finally released from his Russian cell after agreeing to some much more reasonable Russian peace terms. Upon returning to Stockholm he immediately ended the Riksdag's short-lived dominance and returned Sweden to absolutism. This ended the Riksdag Phase of the war and led into the Karolian Phase of the Great Eastern War. At the beginning of 1704, after completely reviewing the failed strategies that they had repeatedly used for the past three years the Holy Alliance smartly decided to change their strategies. This led to Holy Alliance victories, small and large, in Russia, Moldavia, the Aegean, and Serbia. However, all these victories amounted to almost nothing, because of the two infamous treacheries that marked the Karolian Phase. The first treachery resulted from the failure of the Karolyi Plot in which Sandor Karolyi attempted to extract Erzsebet Thokoly, Emre Thokoly's daughter, from the clutches of the Ottoman Empire. Had Karolyi succeeded Thokoly would have been free to abandon his Ottoman puppet masters, make peace with Austria, and establish a Principality of Transylvania. But since it failed he was sent a subtle reminder by the Sultan what abandoning his Ottoman patronage would mean for Erzsebet. Thus Thokoly abandoned all plans of making peace with Austria. Instead, he deceived them and ravaged their army at Varat and then Budapest. He even put Vienna at danger, which effectively removed Austria from the equation of the Great Eastern War. Meanwhile to the north after making all sorts of gestures and motions that implied Charles would reconquer Pomerania from Prussia — he did not; rather than invade Pomerania, he broke the Treaty of Riga and invaded the Commonwealth. Quickly Charles XII ran over Livonia and then Lithuania. This in effect removed the Commonwealth from its war with the Sublime Porte. The sum of these two treacheries was the end of the Holy Alliance as Austria, then Augustus II, then Venice all abandoned Russia. An important note on Austria's exit is, unlike France, the Ottomans did not forget about the Hungarians in their peace treaty which forced the Austrians to liberate Transylvania and give a number of freedoms to the remaining Hungarians under Austrian rule.
After Augustus II the Strong made peace with the Ottomans it was suspected that his mighty armies would be able to rally and defeat the small Swedish invasion. Yet this did not happen for two reasons, one further treachery, and two Augustus' foolishness. In the case of the former the majority of Poland proper and Saxony fell when Augustus' Prussian and Brunswicker allies turned on him and invaded his lands. Meanwhile in Lithuania, Augustus' tactlessness resulted in the loss of huge amounts of his equipment, the desertion of many of his soldiers, and the betrayal of the Ruthenian Cossacks. Consequently Augustus lost every land he held a title too save for the small fortress of Kamenets. It was from there that he was forced to accept the new established order. In the Treaty of Altranstadt Sweden's earlier defeat to the Commonwealth was reversed and the Duchy of Courland was removed from Polish suzerainty and placed under Swedish control. Meanwhile the crown of Commonwealth was awarded to its legal holder, the Prince of Conti. And Saxony was given to Augustus' son Augustus III and placed under a ten year Protestant regency. In total it amounted to complete defeat for Augustus III, but not necessarily for Saxony and the Commonwealth. This treaty marked the end of the Karolian Phase as Charles XII and Sweden finally executed the Great Eastern War.
The last phase of the Great Eastern War is the Phase of the Mad Tsar, because during this phase Tsar Peter drastically changed from slightly unhinged to absolutely insane. This phase began with a series of thrusts and parries in Southern and Eastern Russia, where the Khanates had risen up against the Russians. Initially the Russians seemed capable of at the very least forcing the Ottomans to accept a stalemate, but as the war lengthened the situation for Russian worsened. With every year Tatar raids against the Russians destroyed more farms and ransacked more towns. Once the Crimeans even raided the outer parts of Moscow. Meanwhile on the periphery the Ottomans and Khanates slowly began to strangle Russia with the seizures of Kiev, Kursk, Kazan, etc. And at home the Tsar alienated his people with his lunacy which involved ordering Russian rivers upon which both Russian villager and Tatar raider alike relied upon to be poisoned, ordering Russian soldiers to release sickness into Russian towns and cities, and most prominently expelling the Muscovites from their city in an attempt to lure the Ottomans into Moscow. Finally by 1708 the starving, exhausted people and aristocrats of Russia had had enough with Peter and in a violent coup usurped him in favor of his son, Alexei. With that the Great Eastern War finally ended as the new Tsar accepted the Ottomans humiliating terms of ceding vast amounts of land, recognizing the independence of the Khanates, and destroying much fortification. However at least in Alexei's eyes Russia could now recover and rebuild, oh how wrong he was.
Somewhat concurrent with the Phase of the Mad Tsar were two Western European conflicts. The first was the quick and brief but nonetheless important Corsican Rebellion. It began with a native Corsican revolt but expanded when the Hessian brother-in-law of King William III accepted the Corsican offer of a crown and brought with him an army to liberate Corsica from the Genoese. While on the Continent the Lombards took advantage of the Genoese distraction in Corsica to seize Genoa itself. That action by the Lombards ended the conflict as it ended Genoa. Now this conflict by itself is not of no consequence, but it pales in comparison to the final War of the Grand Alliance that followed it.
While the courts of European turned their attention to the small war in Corsica and Genoa another, greater conflict was brewing. In Lorraine, the Duke grew tired of the heavy hand of France that he had known his whole life. In perhaps a lapse of thinking he made some statements he should not have and brought unto himself the ire of Louis XIV. Lorraine against the full might of France stood not a chance and was soon smote by the divine wrath of the Sun King. During this lightning invasion the Grand Alliance laid paralyzed as Emperor Joseph was too ill to decided whether or not to join the war. It was only after Lorraine had already fallen that Joseph would rally from his illness and rally the Empire to the idea of pushing back the French menace. Thus began the Third and Final War of the Grand Alliance.
Once Austria and the Empire had joined the fray, so too did the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain and most importantly Lombardy. The final member to join the Grand Alliance had been a French ally for a decade now and their betrayal threatened to destroy the entire French war plan. However rumor leaked out about the Lombard plans and it was then possible that the entire Grand Alliance war plan would fall apart. And it did, but not for that exact reason. Instead severe miscommunication and French cautiousness in regards to Italy destroyed the Grand Alliance's peninsular ambitions. In the north, the Imperial army faltered on the Rhine due to some issues in Poland depriving the Imperial army of tens of thousands of soldiers. This faltering and that miscommunication delivered to the Grand Alliance a harsh defeat, albeit a hollow victory for France due to the harrowing death toll. At this moment the Grand Alliance sought peace only for the Sun King in his ecstasy to practically demand the Rhineland and more from the Grand Alliance. That might have spelled the end to peace negotiations and inaugurated a decade of war had not Louis XIV died soon after. His son, Louis XV was quite unlike his father and realized that France was on the brink of collapse even more so than the Grand Alliance. Thus Louis XV gave the Grand Alliance a generous peace and brought on years of peace for Western Europe.
The final European conflict that needs to be discussed is the Second Time of Troubles. This calamitous period for Russia began about a century after the first Time of Troubles. It too was provoked by severe weather conditions and food shortages. Additionally it was brought on by the incompetence of Tsar Alexei in managing the broken Tsardom of Russia. It began when Catherine Ivanovna seized the opportunity presented by Alexei's folly and started a war of succession. However her initial success did not translate into later victory as soon a far more capable claimant entered the scene. In 1711 Charles XII launched his second invasion of Russia in support of the claim of his nephew, Karl Frederick or Karl Fridih. This invasion restored the prestige Charles had lost during his first invasion as he easily swept across Russia. Charles crushed the other claimants, limited the gains of the Commonwealth and Cossacks, and obliterated the Muscovy Company's attempts to create Siberian protectorates. By the end of the 1720 Charles had completely restored law and order to Russia and had even managed to pivot the interests of Russian boyars from western expansion to southern and eastern expansion.
Outside of Europe there are really only three notable conflicts, the War of the Mughal Succession, the War of the Maratha Succession, and the Succesion of Bidar Bakht. They shall only be mentioned briefly. In the former Azam Shah with the aid the British East India company manage to defeat his brothers in a series of battles across India. And within a few years Azam Shah had established himself as the sole ruler of the Mughal Empire. The second conflcit was longer. During it the pretender Shahu, supported by the British East India Company, battled against Queen Tarabai, who found friends in France and the Netherlands. After years of back and forth fighting in the northern Maratha Empire Shahu would be killed by a Charleville musket and the Queen Tarabai reigned supreme. Finally the Succession of Bidar Bakht saw the Qajars swiftly retake Balochistan, but nothing more as neither the Qajars nor the new Mughal Emperor were interested in a drawn out conflcit. Bidar Bakht's succession also saw the power of the British East India Company within the Mughal Empire take a blow as the Company was deprived of its Diwani rights.
Si vis pacem, para bellum Gian Gastone de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
With the Third War of the Grand Alliance finished and the behemoth, the Sun King, a period of general peace commence in Europe. That is of course with the notable exception of Russia, who was consumed by the Second Time of Troubles, and Sweden, who was entangled in the brutal affair of a civil war. In contrast, the rest of Europe, once ravaged by war, spent the same time recovering and rebuilding. Yet all of this occurred under the dark shadow of a question: when and why would the next war occur.
The answers to that question were innumerable at first. Everything was suggested as a plausible spark, from a colonial war in the Americas between Spain and Great Britain to a Swedish reconquest of Prussian Pomerania. However with more time those potential starts to the next war decreased due to a series of political events, commonly called the Diplomatic Revolution. It began with the collapse of the Grand Alliance after the Treaty of Paris. In the void that emerged Great Britain felt the need to find an ally to replace Austria. For this they turned to the Kingdom of Prussia, Denmark-Norway, and Brunswick-Luneburg. To Great Britain nothing wrong was apparent, but the rest of Europe saw it as a Protestant alliance intent on ripping the Holy Roman Empire in half. Perhaps this fear combined with others would provoke the more shocking Congress of Strasbourg which allied Austria, France, Spain, and Lombardy. Not only did this unite the age old enemies of Austria and France, but ended all French claims to the throne of Spain, and reconciled the traitorous Lombards with the French. The final piece of the Diplomatic Revolution saw Sweden join the Lubeck Convention and Denmark-Norway quit in response. Yeteven with these two blocs of power Europe is not safe from war as both alliances are incredibly incoherent and have little trust among themselves.
The main answers to the question of what war would be fought, left after the creation of the two major alliances, were Poland, Saxony, and Tuscany. Poland is obviously and always will be a potential source of war as it elective monarchy seems to encourage foreign powers to interfere with the elections and occasionally go to war to place their candidate upon the throne. Additionally after the eccentrics of King Jakub Ludwik Sobieski the question of whether or not Sweden would support the election of his son upon his death arose. Should the king die it is expected that the Portuguese prince, several Commonwealth nobles, a few Italian aristocrats, and probably others will put forth their names as candidates and depending on how the election unfolds a war could break out.
In Saxony, initially, Frederick Augustus II lacked any direct relatives to inherit his throne. As a consequence, many people were floating their names around as potential heirs to Frederick Augustus, most notable were his Ernestine Wettin kinsmen. In 1716 the Elector's wife took with child and it was thought the crisis might come to an end. However, it only deepened as his wife gave birth to two twin daughters, whose husbands might use that connection to claim the throne. But his wife became pregnant again and it was thought that it must be a boy this time. And it was, but he died quickly after. Eventually, in 1724 Frederick Augustus finally received a healthy boy to be his heir and the crisis ended. However should that boy die, or should he fail to conceive an heir the succession crisis will ensue again.
In Tuscany lies the most likely cause of war, because not even Grand Duke Gian Gastone d'Medici knows who will be his heir. Currently, it is believed he favors a foreign prince. Which could easily become a problem if it is the wrong foreign prince, say a Wittelsbach prince in the middle of French Italy. And to worsen that problem it is not even known if the Tuscans want a foreign prince. The Senate favors a return to the Republic, some nobles suggest Gian Gastone's sister become Grand Duchess, and others recall when Cosimo pointed to the d'Estes of Modena as heirs. Perhaps the most vociferous claimant is Elisabeth Farnese, or rather the son she wishes to put on the Tuscan throne. And that in itself is a problem as allowing the Savoyards to unite Lombardy, Parma, and Tuscany fails to appeal to many of the courts of Europe. It is this crisis that is the Tuscan succession and should any player, large or small, play their cards correctly they may find themselves in possession of part or all of Tuscany.
With the Russian dream of a beautiful port on the Baltic Sea destroyed and its realities of poor, but existent, ports on the White Sea and the Black Sea lost a new Russian dream developed. Encouraged by the large amount of Russian military actions that took place in Siberia against the various Siberian revolts and the later Russian military settlement of Siberia to replace the lost Cossack settlements, Russian aristocrats and generals developed a dream of eastern expansion. Expansion that would avoid confrontation with the all too powerful Sweden and Sublime Porte. However this dream was a dream deferred until the end of the Second Time of Troubles.
Once the Second Time of Troubles came to a close the Russians wasted little time with advancing their eastern ambitions. Russian diplomats were quick to negotiate a treaty with the Little Kazakh Juz that turned the Juz into a Russian protectorate. Following that the Russians built several forts within the Little Juz, both to defend it from its enemies and promote the interests of its protector. Soon the Russians felt their position in Kazakhstan was secure enough to proceed to the next step, Khiva.
In 1721 a small Russian force under the command of Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassy entered the Caspian Sea. It spent the year mapping the shores of Khiva and constructing a few forts along the coastline, in strategic spots. This drew the attention of the Khan of Khiva, Shir Ghazi, you realised that Russia had malovent intent towards Khiva. Meanwhile Russian diplomats were working behind the scenes far to the south in Persia. During a series of negotiations between the new Russian regime and the new Persian one the two sides came to a mutual agreement over Khiva, which stated that within a year both powers would raise a sizable force to strike at the khanate from the north and the south.
In Kazakhstan by mid 1722 the Russians had fulfilled their portion of the bargain as Mikhail Matyushkin had gathered a sizable army of Swedish trained and equipped Russian soldiers. Swiftly General Matyushkin launched his invasion as soon as the weather permitted. Khan Shir Ghazi responded by calling up an army over twice the size of the Russian one, but no where near as organized, unified, trained, or equipped. Indeed Khan Shir Ghazi's army was a raving horde, which begs the question of how Khiva managed to conquered Northern Khorasan and Yarkent. To that the answer is that Yarkent was even worse off than a raving horde and in Northern Khorasan the Persians were in such disarray that even a raving horde could defeat them. Now however things were different.
With Shir Ghazi steadily retreating in face of the advancing Russian army Russia's Persian friends met their obligations. From Southern Khorasan and the Gorgan two large Qajar armies marched into Khiva. The number alone of these armies would have been enough to overwhelm the Khivan army occupying the region, but the Qajars showed how well Persia had recovered from its troubled times and how much it had learned from its Balochistan war as it absolutely destroyed the local Khivan army. Thus it was with the upmost ease that Persia reconquered its lost lands.
Faced with two enemies in Russia and Persia Shir Ghazi had to chose to respond to one, otherwise he and Khiva would be strangled by the two invasion. Obviously Shir Ghazi chose to engage the the smaller Russian army. But when he descended upon them at the Oxus River their lack of numbers seemed to be negligible. Matyushkin utilised the Oxus to force Shir Ghazi into an ill-advised assault that was butchered by a vicious combination of Russian musket volleys, artillery cannonades, and finally a bayonet charge in unison with a cavalry charge. In a bloody fashion the Russians defeated the main Khivan army and broke the back of the Khanate.
In the aftermath of the victory at the Oxus the Russians continued their advance securing strategic points along the Oxus River. To their south the Persians established firmer control over the southwestern portions of Khiva proper. In the process both invaders continually defeating the remnant of the Khivan army. And to the east the Dzungar Khanate took advantage of the decline of their western neighbor and launched an invasion of their own. A monstrous host of Dzungar riders soon came down upon Khiva and stole the once Yarkent Khanate from the finished Khanate of Khiva. However when the advance riders of the Dzungar horde were defeated in skirmishes with both the Russians and the Qajars the Dzungars wisely balked from expanding further to the west.
By the end of 1724 the Khanate of Khiva was no more. As result of the superior arms of Russia and Persia, as well as the overwhelming numbers of the Qajars Khiva was simply unable to halt the intrusions upon its territory and in the process lost its sovereignty. In the place of the once fearsome Khanate of Khiva the Russians established themselves in the northwest, the Persians in the southwest, and the Dzungars in the east. However in all three of these regions the actual extent of conquest is limited, especially in the case of the Russians, whose power fails to extent past their forts and the immediate countryside.
Summary of Events
Russians and Persians make deal over Khiva
Russians invade Khiva
Khiva backs away from formidable Russian army
Persians overrun lost provinces
Khiva tries to retaliate against the Russians and is soundly mashed
Russia and Persia finish off Khiva
Dzungars conquer Khivan portion of Yarkent
Unofficial understanding reached over Khiva between Russia, Persia, and Dzungaria
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