Odyssey of Fritz, the Turncoat Prince
- Thread starter Alt History Buff
- Start date
what sort of overt social changes happened in india? Printing, more knowledge on science, more social mobility among mixed race children and greater distribution of wealth?
what is the status of mixed race children? if their parent is a noble will they inherit the title?
what is the religion of choice among them? Christianity? or is it possible for them to follow Hinduism?
Do maratha impose some sort of religious conformity among Europeans? like attaching conditions to noble tiles, like only way a mixed race child inherit the title if he is a practicing Hindu?
Is there some sort of social change in case of status of woman like widow marriage, abolition of sati and polygamy, and child marriage? I do not think Europeans want those things affect them or their children.
what is the current status of indian Jews?
what is the status of mixed race children? if their parent is a noble will they inherit the title?
what is the religion of choice among them? Christianity? or is it possible for them to follow Hinduism?
Do maratha impose some sort of religious conformity among Europeans? like attaching conditions to noble tiles, like only way a mixed race child inherit the title if he is a practicing Hindu?
Is there some sort of social change in case of status of woman like widow marriage, abolition of sati and polygamy, and child marriage? I do not think Europeans want those things affect them or their children.
what is the current status of indian Jews?
Yes, South Italy was a basketbread for Spain especially in her golden age and Naples had a fair shipbuilding and local banking system - and now also the luxury manufactories of Campania.
And indeed as South Italy suffered (also on a socialcultural note other than the effective pillage damage) for centuries of berber piracy, the Spanish protection would be surely welcomed in the Meridione giving another potential bond in favour of Madrid.
Chapter 174
Chapter 174
July, 1792
Eastern Flanders
The German Confederation troops renewed their assault in the summer of 1792 against the Dutch Republic and Flanders. The Republics of Great Britain and France would dispatch troops to assist under General Moreau. General Mercer retired to Scotland due to ill-health and an Irish-born soldiers by the name of Despard would assume command of the English forces.
As the Germans remained somewhat divided, their forces would not be able to press very deeply into the Low Countries. With a savage counter-attack, the Germans were forced back by Moreau.
The Rhine
With over 90,000 soldiers, the Austrian (Habsburg) army crossed the Rhine again after several attempts. This season, the French sought to defend the waters themselves, forcing the Austrians emerge into French territory through the teeth of their defenses. After several thousands casualties, the Austrians made it across only to find the French levee en masse had turned out over 100,000 soldiers on this front alone. Backed by fortifications built over the past few years, the French border regions were quite powerfully protected. The best routes throughout the hilly and mountainous regions were well defended by infantry and artillery. The fine Austrian cavalry would not play the role their commanders desired. Any gains, like the Rhine itself, would be paid for in generous heapings of blood.
Swiss Cantons
In the previous year, the Austrians had attempted to attack France via the Swiss Cantons. These were pseudo-Republicans themselves and thus not terribly popular among the Monarchists of Europe. However, the Cantons were, in fact, little more than divisive tiny states often ruled by clergy or nobles, much like the Holy Roman Empire. In several Cantons, revolutions against their long-time gentry would lead to closer ties with France, no doubt spurred by anger against the Austrian invasion of their neutrality.
The French would dispatch troops as well under Carteaux to counter the Austrian invasion and support the local revolutionaries. With both sides controlling mountain passes, the war ground to a halt as the Swiss found themselves defacto occupied by two great hostile parties.
Syria
The Russian-backed Maronite (Lebanese) and Alawite forces would press the Turks north and west, into eastern Syria. By 1792, the Russian fleet had swept the Ottoman Navy from the waters and now dominated the Eastern Mediterranean. However, that did not mean that the Russian forces had achieved numerical superiority over the Trebizond front , the Armenian front, the Mesopotamian front and now the Syrian front. The Russian Army, though reformed, still had not developed a logistical capability to support all these initiatives (nor did any 18th century army, to be fair), at least not well.
Thus the Ottoman would maintain their offensive in what was perhaps considered their last opportunity to remain a regional power.
Basra
After an enormous effort, the Russian forces seized Basra, the ancient gateway to the southern seas.
Alexandria
The engineers had returned with the report that, yes, it was possible to create a canal through the Suez Peninsula. Excited at the possibility, they belated realized the sheer magnitude of the project and wondered how it would be possible to maintain such a huge workforce for so many years, especially in the face of violent opposition. Neither Egypt nor Syria appeared likely to be pacified soon, not without massive reinforcements which no local commander actually believed to be likely to materialize.
Galvezton Bay
General Frederick Hohenzollern would compliment his adjutant, Lieutenant de Buonaparte, for his work in situating the fortifications around Galvezton Bay. While hardly covering the entire vast Bay, it did guard the approaches and the mouth of the river, where most of the population were setting up before departing inland. For the moment, the local Indians were not causing too much trouble but Hohenzollern had heard nightmares about the tribes of the interior near the tiny Spanish mission at San Antonio de Bexar.
In the meantime, it had been determined that the small settlement at the mouth the great bay would be called Galvezton but the larger population center to the west on the banks of Buffalo Bayou would have another name. It was put up to a vote and Hohenzollern assumed it would be named Franklin or Washington or some sort (rumor had it that an agreement had been made on renaming the Taxxus territory by Congress but it turned out that was incorrect.
The people of the upriver town on the northern (mainly American, German, French, etc) bank of Buffalo Bayou would name their town...Buffalo. Apparently, they weren't the creative types. These predominantly Coptic and Lebanese citizens south of the bank would name their settlement...Khalas, the Arabic word for Deliverance.
Hohenzollern cared little about any of this. He only cared that both sides of the river were willing to support the militia. If the Spanish came in anger, he doubted the fortifications would be able to repel them alone.
As it was, the German decided to pay his counterpart a visit in Bexar to feel out if there is any danger of a Spanish attack via New Spain.
July, 1792
Eastern Flanders
The German Confederation troops renewed their assault in the summer of 1792 against the Dutch Republic and Flanders. The Republics of Great Britain and France would dispatch troops to assist under General Moreau. General Mercer retired to Scotland due to ill-health and an Irish-born soldiers by the name of Despard would assume command of the English forces.
As the Germans remained somewhat divided, their forces would not be able to press very deeply into the Low Countries. With a savage counter-attack, the Germans were forced back by Moreau.
The Rhine
With over 90,000 soldiers, the Austrian (Habsburg) army crossed the Rhine again after several attempts. This season, the French sought to defend the waters themselves, forcing the Austrians emerge into French territory through the teeth of their defenses. After several thousands casualties, the Austrians made it across only to find the French levee en masse had turned out over 100,000 soldiers on this front alone. Backed by fortifications built over the past few years, the French border regions were quite powerfully protected. The best routes throughout the hilly and mountainous regions were well defended by infantry and artillery. The fine Austrian cavalry would not play the role their commanders desired. Any gains, like the Rhine itself, would be paid for in generous heapings of blood.
Swiss Cantons
In the previous year, the Austrians had attempted to attack France via the Swiss Cantons. These were pseudo-Republicans themselves and thus not terribly popular among the Monarchists of Europe. However, the Cantons were, in fact, little more than divisive tiny states often ruled by clergy or nobles, much like the Holy Roman Empire. In several Cantons, revolutions against their long-time gentry would lead to closer ties with France, no doubt spurred by anger against the Austrian invasion of their neutrality.
The French would dispatch troops as well under Carteaux to counter the Austrian invasion and support the local revolutionaries. With both sides controlling mountain passes, the war ground to a halt as the Swiss found themselves defacto occupied by two great hostile parties.
Syria
The Russian-backed Maronite (Lebanese) and Alawite forces would press the Turks north and west, into eastern Syria. By 1792, the Russian fleet had swept the Ottoman Navy from the waters and now dominated the Eastern Mediterranean. However, that did not mean that the Russian forces had achieved numerical superiority over the Trebizond front , the Armenian front, the Mesopotamian front and now the Syrian front. The Russian Army, though reformed, still had not developed a logistical capability to support all these initiatives (nor did any 18th century army, to be fair), at least not well.
Thus the Ottoman would maintain their offensive in what was perhaps considered their last opportunity to remain a regional power.
Basra
After an enormous effort, the Russian forces seized Basra, the ancient gateway to the southern seas.
Alexandria
The engineers had returned with the report that, yes, it was possible to create a canal through the Suez Peninsula. Excited at the possibility, they belated realized the sheer magnitude of the project and wondered how it would be possible to maintain such a huge workforce for so many years, especially in the face of violent opposition. Neither Egypt nor Syria appeared likely to be pacified soon, not without massive reinforcements which no local commander actually believed to be likely to materialize.
Galvezton Bay
General Frederick Hohenzollern would compliment his adjutant, Lieutenant de Buonaparte, for his work in situating the fortifications around Galvezton Bay. While hardly covering the entire vast Bay, it did guard the approaches and the mouth of the river, where most of the population were setting up before departing inland. For the moment, the local Indians were not causing too much trouble but Hohenzollern had heard nightmares about the tribes of the interior near the tiny Spanish mission at San Antonio de Bexar.
In the meantime, it had been determined that the small settlement at the mouth the great bay would be called Galvezton but the larger population center to the west on the banks of Buffalo Bayou would have another name. It was put up to a vote and Hohenzollern assumed it would be named Franklin or Washington or some sort (rumor had it that an agreement had been made on renaming the Taxxus territory by Congress but it turned out that was incorrect.
The people of the upriver town on the northern (mainly American, German, French, etc) bank of Buffalo Bayou would name their town...Buffalo. Apparently, they weren't the creative types. These predominantly Coptic and Lebanese citizens south of the bank would name their settlement...Khalas, the Arabic word for Deliverance.
Hohenzollern cared little about any of this. He only cared that both sides of the river were willing to support the militia. If the Spanish came in anger, he doubted the fortifications would be able to repel them alone.
As it was, the German decided to pay his counterpart a visit in Bexar to feel out if there is any danger of a Spanish attack via New Spain.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
To build the Suez Canal, perhaps pacifying Egypt can become a pan-European (+American) effort. Egypt can become an international condominium where the major powers can share control. To give the pretense of Egyptian self-governance, the powers can appoint someone manageable as Egypt's titular ruler. Think China.
Chapter 175
Chapter 175
September, 1792
San Antonio de Bexar
Brigadier General Frederick Hohenzollern knew that, technically, he was arriving uninvited to Spanish territory yet there was an unspoken understanding among the governing classes that one treated one's equals with respect. As the appointed governor of the "Taxxus" colony, Hohenzollern could speak with the authority of his own nation's gentry.
Leading a party of 20 men through the eastern edge of territory claimed by the most violent and dangerous (by reputation) tribe in the region, the Comanche, it took the party five days to voyage 200 miles inland even at a steady clip and good weather. The summer heat had mercifully died down a bit for a few weeks and made the trip bearable.
Upon arrival, the soldier presented a case of wine and whisky, twenty pounds of prime Maryland tobacco and a few other luxuries which were no doubt hard to come by. Lieutenant de Buonaparte acted as translator to the Spaniards. For the most part, the Americans were treated politely, though no doubt the local governor was irate at the intrusion but the forms of conduct allowed officers to pay complimentary visits and be received with a certain courtesy. Hohenzollern did not care as he learned what he wanted to learn.
San Antonio de Bexar was a dump, a backwater berg bearing barely 500 souls excluding the Indians. Perhaps 50 soldiers in various stages of decay "guarded" a territory of a three hundred mile radius. Hohenzollern realized this outpost was not a threat.
He did wonder why the Spanish had never set up a colony along the coast like Galvezton which, no doubt, would have made it easier to supply colonies in Taxxus. Indeed, only the previous year, the Americans had initiated a full scale mapping expedition of the western Caribbean coast down to the little town of San Juan de Esteros Hermosos (Saint John of Beautiful Estuaries), a cattle station settled a couple of decades prior by a few enterprising families. This was the northernmost Spanish settlement along the coast.
The Americans, their diplomatic expedition completed, returned home. The weather was less cooperative on the way home as two storms wracked the landscape even as temperatures climbed again above ninety. Throughout the return march, the Americans felt the eyes of local tribesmen upon them.
Upon the return to Galvezton, the soldier learned that Congress had finally determined the name of the territory. The region from Galvezton Bay to the Mississippi River would be termed Atacapa, after the dominant Indian tribe prior to American settlement. Many of the Indian had died of diseases unwittingly brought from the East Coast, Europe or, in the case of the Egyptians and Lebanese, Africa and Asia.
There was also another missive from Congress, one that concerned Hohenzollern more. The lands to the south of Galvezton Bay to San Juan de Esteros Hermosos would be called Karankawa, after that areas most notable local tribe. Apparently, the various factions in Congress could not determine just who would be honored by having a province named after them: Washington, Franklin and Hohenzollern's own father had been considered. But Congress was becoming divisive and parties were forming. In the end, they determined just to look at the current maps which had the names of local tribes or tribal terms for these regions upon them and decided to go with names like Mackinac, Wabash, Missouri and Atacapa.
Not for the first time, the soldier wondered at the lack of creativity at work in Congress.
He supposed it didn't matter much either way. What did matter was that the "official" new name for the territory of Karankawa south of his position came with an "official" order to "officially" set up a new settlement at a bay called by the Spanish Corpus Christi, about half-way between Galvezton Bay and San Juan de Esteros Hermosos.
Hohenzollern wondered if the government was actually TRYING to start a war with Spain.
October, 1792
France
Though the death count role precipitously over the past campaign, the results remained largely the same.
Spain's army proved incapable of successfully invading southern France, the French-Piedmontese were able to brush off the forces of Tuscany and the Papal States, the German Confederation was stalemated in eastern Flanders and the Austrians could not shift aside the French forces along the Rhine.
The primary difference from the previous year was that the French and Austrian forces had also conquered most of the Swiss Cantons between them. Several Cantons erupted in Revolution as a result of this situation, something that the Royalist allies had not anticipated.
By October, most of the frustrated combatants were preparing to enter winter quarters having wasted perhaps 30,000 lives in battle and more than that of disease. All involved were running close to bankruptcy. It seemed just a matter of what would break first: Revolutionary zeal...or Monarchist will.
It turned out that both sides would collapse over the winter, though due to differing reasons. Internal strife, betrayal between allies and sudden involvement in overseas conflicts would dampen the capacity of the major Empires to strike at one another in 1793.
Le Havre
The Spanish, Portuguese and British Royal Navy loyalists would sail north through September and arrive off of Le Havre in October. This proved to be a perfect moment for the Monarchist allies. Several of the British Republican Naval ships had been dispatched to the northern German coast to attack Hamburg. Many of the Dutch ships had returned home for repairs and would not soon see the sea again.
This left the French navy and the remnants of the British Republican Navy to face the Royalists. It did not end well. Thirty Spanish, Portuguese and Royal Navy vessels would fall upon twenty-two French and British Republican ships. Eventually, the remnants of the Republican fleet would retreat back to the safety of Le Havre, leaving eight ships sunk or captured behind them. Only four Spanish and Royal Navy ships had been lost.
September, 1792
San Antonio de Bexar
Brigadier General Frederick Hohenzollern knew that, technically, he was arriving uninvited to Spanish territory yet there was an unspoken understanding among the governing classes that one treated one's equals with respect. As the appointed governor of the "Taxxus" colony, Hohenzollern could speak with the authority of his own nation's gentry.
Leading a party of 20 men through the eastern edge of territory claimed by the most violent and dangerous (by reputation) tribe in the region, the Comanche, it took the party five days to voyage 200 miles inland even at a steady clip and good weather. The summer heat had mercifully died down a bit for a few weeks and made the trip bearable.
Upon arrival, the soldier presented a case of wine and whisky, twenty pounds of prime Maryland tobacco and a few other luxuries which were no doubt hard to come by. Lieutenant de Buonaparte acted as translator to the Spaniards. For the most part, the Americans were treated politely, though no doubt the local governor was irate at the intrusion but the forms of conduct allowed officers to pay complimentary visits and be received with a certain courtesy. Hohenzollern did not care as he learned what he wanted to learn.
San Antonio de Bexar was a dump, a backwater berg bearing barely 500 souls excluding the Indians. Perhaps 50 soldiers in various stages of decay "guarded" a territory of a three hundred mile radius. Hohenzollern realized this outpost was not a threat.
He did wonder why the Spanish had never set up a colony along the coast like Galvezton which, no doubt, would have made it easier to supply colonies in Taxxus. Indeed, only the previous year, the Americans had initiated a full scale mapping expedition of the western Caribbean coast down to the little town of San Juan de Esteros Hermosos (Saint John of Beautiful Estuaries), a cattle station settled a couple of decades prior by a few enterprising families. This was the northernmost Spanish settlement along the coast.
The Americans, their diplomatic expedition completed, returned home. The weather was less cooperative on the way home as two storms wracked the landscape even as temperatures climbed again above ninety. Throughout the return march, the Americans felt the eyes of local tribesmen upon them.
Upon the return to Galvezton, the soldier learned that Congress had finally determined the name of the territory. The region from Galvezton Bay to the Mississippi River would be termed Atacapa, after the dominant Indian tribe prior to American settlement. Many of the Indian had died of diseases unwittingly brought from the East Coast, Europe or, in the case of the Egyptians and Lebanese, Africa and Asia.
There was also another missive from Congress, one that concerned Hohenzollern more. The lands to the south of Galvezton Bay to San Juan de Esteros Hermosos would be called Karankawa, after that areas most notable local tribe. Apparently, the various factions in Congress could not determine just who would be honored by having a province named after them: Washington, Franklin and Hohenzollern's own father had been considered. But Congress was becoming divisive and parties were forming. In the end, they determined just to look at the current maps which had the names of local tribes or tribal terms for these regions upon them and decided to go with names like Mackinac, Wabash, Missouri and Atacapa.
Not for the first time, the soldier wondered at the lack of creativity at work in Congress.
He supposed it didn't matter much either way. What did matter was that the "official" new name for the territory of Karankawa south of his position came with an "official" order to "officially" set up a new settlement at a bay called by the Spanish Corpus Christi, about half-way between Galvezton Bay and San Juan de Esteros Hermosos.
Hohenzollern wondered if the government was actually TRYING to start a war with Spain.
October, 1792
France
Though the death count role precipitously over the past campaign, the results remained largely the same.
Spain's army proved incapable of successfully invading southern France, the French-Piedmontese were able to brush off the forces of Tuscany and the Papal States, the German Confederation was stalemated in eastern Flanders and the Austrians could not shift aside the French forces along the Rhine.
The primary difference from the previous year was that the French and Austrian forces had also conquered most of the Swiss Cantons between them. Several Cantons erupted in Revolution as a result of this situation, something that the Royalist allies had not anticipated.
By October, most of the frustrated combatants were preparing to enter winter quarters having wasted perhaps 30,000 lives in battle and more than that of disease. All involved were running close to bankruptcy. It seemed just a matter of what would break first: Revolutionary zeal...or Monarchist will.
It turned out that both sides would collapse over the winter, though due to differing reasons. Internal strife, betrayal between allies and sudden involvement in overseas conflicts would dampen the capacity of the major Empires to strike at one another in 1793.
Le Havre
The Spanish, Portuguese and British Royal Navy loyalists would sail north through September and arrive off of Le Havre in October. This proved to be a perfect moment for the Monarchist allies. Several of the British Republican Naval ships had been dispatched to the northern German coast to attack Hamburg. Many of the Dutch ships had returned home for repairs and would not soon see the sea again.
This left the French navy and the remnants of the British Republican Navy to face the Royalists. It did not end well. Thirty Spanish, Portuguese and Royal Navy vessels would fall upon twenty-two French and British Republican ships. Eventually, the remnants of the Republican fleet would retreat back to the safety of Le Havre, leaving eight ships sunk or captured behind them. Only four Spanish and Royal Navy ships had been lost.
Ohoho. It seems that war might have indeed broke out between Spain and the USA.
Chapter 176
Chapter 176
December, 1792
Charlestown, SC
Edmond Charles Genet was appointed Ambassador by the French Directory. A young man of modest background, he had an astonishing gift for language, having spoken over half a dozen by age 12. Genet had quickly become a radical revolutionary and ascended through the ranks. An appointment as Ambassador to a friendly country was impressive but his true purpose, other than convincing America to declare war upon the various Monarchist nation, was to encourage American Privateers to attack Spanish and French Royalist islands in the West Indies.
Of course, granting local American captains commissions to attack Spanish and French ships was a massive breech of American neutrality and sovereignty. Even offering commissions
from across the ocean was unacceptable, for Genet to do so from the docks of Charlestown was an offense of exponentially higher magnitude. Genet didn't even bother to present his credentials in Manhattan. He merely sailed directly to the southern port and commenced arming American opportunists.
President Jay attempted to halt the practice by diplomacy, commanding Genet to suspend his actions. When Genet replied with insulting terms, Jay had Secretary of War Laurens place the man under arrest. Such actions were contrary to diplomacy but so was what Genet was doing. Protests were sent to Paris (which would be ignored as Paris would have its own problems) and Genet placed under house arrest in Manhattan until a response from the French government was received.
However, Genet had already done his damage. Half a dozen American ships had been granted letters of marque and had sailed from Charlestown for the West Indies. Over a dozen Spanish ships would be attacked before the first American ship was captured by a Spanish frigate. The Viceroy of Havana was not pleased (understandably). He issued a violent dispatch to Madrid and proceeded to execute the ship's captain as a pirate. The local American representative apologized for the incident (having been warned by Manhattan of the events) but protested the summary execution pointing out that the ships had not yet, to anyone's knowledge, killed any Spanish subject.
President Jay was embarrassed but knew that the Spanish actions required some sort of retaliation. He had almost been convinced by General Hohenzollern to suspend the settlement at Corpus Christi but knew he could not back down now that the American public was aroused. Jay knew his own countrymen's culpability in the crisis but the Spanish were apparently not inclined to negotiate a return to normal relations. Instead, ill feelings grew and the Spanish were feeling confident after their victory off of Le Havre.
Manhattan
President Jay did not always see eye to eye with Prime Minister John Adams but they agreed entirely about expediting the modest buildup of American Army and Naval forces. With a French Royalist stronghold in Quebec potentially a target for the New French Republic, tensions rising with Spain over a pointless cutoff of trade with their West Indian colonies (and those of the French Royalists) and now the border dispute in Taxxus….er, Atacapa and Karankawa.
Then the damned French envoy Genet had violated American sovereignty by recruiting soldiers and pirates ON AMERICAN SOIL!
Just when Jay thought things couldn't get any worse, he learned that several dozen American sailors had been impressed into the Republic of Great Britain's navy from the very decks of American merchant ships. The British claimed that they were British citizens, and most appeared to have been born British (though so was Jay and he would not expect to be impressed into British service). While there had been mass emigration from Britain to America, the government had not considered these emigrants to have given up their responsibilities to the British state. Indeed, so many sailors had departed for neutral America that it was proving difficult to man even the shattered remnant of the British fleet. Upon the defeat of the Republican allies at Le Havre, the requirement for sailors would only grow as the panicked British public demanded a quick rebuilding of their navy.
Of course, President Jay could not allow this. He ordered the Secretary of State (Hamilton had recently been appointed) to dispatch more protests while the Secretary of the Navy (Whipple) and Secretary of War (Laurens) prepared their forces for potential conflict.
However, like France, Britain would soon be too busy to reply to diplomatic protests.
Paris
The National Guard was effectively a local Parisian militia, controlled by the sans-culottes (literally "without knee breeches, referring to the peasants' trousers that they wore), a radical lower class segment of the Revolutionary movement. On more than one occasion, the National Guard, irritated with one thing or another, would surround the Assembly with muskets and cannon and make demands...which were usually met.
Effectively, this was an armed mob that terrified even their own government, not unlike the Boston mobs that once radicalized the city under Sam Adams and James Otis. With little organization, this mob would demand land reform, cheaper bread (without any suggestions how to make cheaper bread) and, of course, punish the Royalists with every increasing violence.
Prodded on by Marat (of the Tribunal) and Radical newspapermen like Herbert, the National Guard would get tired of the moderate Girondin faction led by Danton and demand their execution by the Directory. A series of ill-founded accusations of counter-revolutionary actions and treason were trumped up by Hebert and incensed the London mob into action under the guise of the National Guard.
Fortunately for the Girondins, many of their leaders had been absent during the winter in their home cities and country estates. The Girondins represented the middle-classes whom did not want wholesale changes to property laws (meaning handing over to the peasants) and were irritated by the Paris Radicals setting the agenda for the entire nation. Condemned as Monarchists by the Herbertists, the Girondin faction were hunted through the streets of Paris and the Directory (which was predominantly independents unaffiliated with either Herbertist or Girondin) were intimidated into declaring dozens of Girondins traitors.
The Girondins fled to the provincial cities which were the source of their strength: Bordeaux, Toulon, Marseille, Lyon and Nice among others.
Many of these cities would form their own armies by fall and more would form armies when they discovered the shocking events ongoing in Paris as hungry mobs turned to the guillotine with ever-increasing fury.
London
The defeat at Le Havre was the final straw. Charles Fox had become so unpopular that the Radicals now held sway in Parliament. Led by Thomas Paine, Fox lost a vote of no-confidence and was ushered out of office. Already seeing the chaos in Paris, he feared as to the future of London.
December, 1792
Charlestown, SC
Edmond Charles Genet was appointed Ambassador by the French Directory. A young man of modest background, he had an astonishing gift for language, having spoken over half a dozen by age 12. Genet had quickly become a radical revolutionary and ascended through the ranks. An appointment as Ambassador to a friendly country was impressive but his true purpose, other than convincing America to declare war upon the various Monarchist nation, was to encourage American Privateers to attack Spanish and French Royalist islands in the West Indies.
Of course, granting local American captains commissions to attack Spanish and French ships was a massive breech of American neutrality and sovereignty. Even offering commissions
from across the ocean was unacceptable, for Genet to do so from the docks of Charlestown was an offense of exponentially higher magnitude. Genet didn't even bother to present his credentials in Manhattan. He merely sailed directly to the southern port and commenced arming American opportunists.
President Jay attempted to halt the practice by diplomacy, commanding Genet to suspend his actions. When Genet replied with insulting terms, Jay had Secretary of War Laurens place the man under arrest. Such actions were contrary to diplomacy but so was what Genet was doing. Protests were sent to Paris (which would be ignored as Paris would have its own problems) and Genet placed under house arrest in Manhattan until a response from the French government was received.
However, Genet had already done his damage. Half a dozen American ships had been granted letters of marque and had sailed from Charlestown for the West Indies. Over a dozen Spanish ships would be attacked before the first American ship was captured by a Spanish frigate. The Viceroy of Havana was not pleased (understandably). He issued a violent dispatch to Madrid and proceeded to execute the ship's captain as a pirate. The local American representative apologized for the incident (having been warned by Manhattan of the events) but protested the summary execution pointing out that the ships had not yet, to anyone's knowledge, killed any Spanish subject.
President Jay was embarrassed but knew that the Spanish actions required some sort of retaliation. He had almost been convinced by General Hohenzollern to suspend the settlement at Corpus Christi but knew he could not back down now that the American public was aroused. Jay knew his own countrymen's culpability in the crisis but the Spanish were apparently not inclined to negotiate a return to normal relations. Instead, ill feelings grew and the Spanish were feeling confident after their victory off of Le Havre.
Manhattan
President Jay did not always see eye to eye with Prime Minister John Adams but they agreed entirely about expediting the modest buildup of American Army and Naval forces. With a French Royalist stronghold in Quebec potentially a target for the New French Republic, tensions rising with Spain over a pointless cutoff of trade with their West Indian colonies (and those of the French Royalists) and now the border dispute in Taxxus….er, Atacapa and Karankawa.
Then the damned French envoy Genet had violated American sovereignty by recruiting soldiers and pirates ON AMERICAN SOIL!
Just when Jay thought things couldn't get any worse, he learned that several dozen American sailors had been impressed into the Republic of Great Britain's navy from the very decks of American merchant ships. The British claimed that they were British citizens, and most appeared to have been born British (though so was Jay and he would not expect to be impressed into British service). While there had been mass emigration from Britain to America, the government had not considered these emigrants to have given up their responsibilities to the British state. Indeed, so many sailors had departed for neutral America that it was proving difficult to man even the shattered remnant of the British fleet. Upon the defeat of the Republican allies at Le Havre, the requirement for sailors would only grow as the panicked British public demanded a quick rebuilding of their navy.
Of course, President Jay could not allow this. He ordered the Secretary of State (Hamilton had recently been appointed) to dispatch more protests while the Secretary of the Navy (Whipple) and Secretary of War (Laurens) prepared their forces for potential conflict.
However, like France, Britain would soon be too busy to reply to diplomatic protests.
Paris
The National Guard was effectively a local Parisian militia, controlled by the sans-culottes (literally "without knee breeches, referring to the peasants' trousers that they wore), a radical lower class segment of the Revolutionary movement. On more than one occasion, the National Guard, irritated with one thing or another, would surround the Assembly with muskets and cannon and make demands...which were usually met.
Effectively, this was an armed mob that terrified even their own government, not unlike the Boston mobs that once radicalized the city under Sam Adams and James Otis. With little organization, this mob would demand land reform, cheaper bread (without any suggestions how to make cheaper bread) and, of course, punish the Royalists with every increasing violence.
Prodded on by Marat (of the Tribunal) and Radical newspapermen like Herbert, the National Guard would get tired of the moderate Girondin faction led by Danton and demand their execution by the Directory. A series of ill-founded accusations of counter-revolutionary actions and treason were trumped up by Hebert and incensed the London mob into action under the guise of the National Guard.
Fortunately for the Girondins, many of their leaders had been absent during the winter in their home cities and country estates. The Girondins represented the middle-classes whom did not want wholesale changes to property laws (meaning handing over to the peasants) and were irritated by the Paris Radicals setting the agenda for the entire nation. Condemned as Monarchists by the Herbertists, the Girondin faction were hunted through the streets of Paris and the Directory (which was predominantly independents unaffiliated with either Herbertist or Girondin) were intimidated into declaring dozens of Girondins traitors.
The Girondins fled to the provincial cities which were the source of their strength: Bordeaux, Toulon, Marseille, Lyon and Nice among others.
Many of these cities would form their own armies by fall and more would form armies when they discovered the shocking events ongoing in Paris as hungry mobs turned to the guillotine with ever-increasing fury.
London
The defeat at Le Havre was the final straw. Charles Fox had become so unpopular that the Radicals now held sway in Parliament. Led by Thomas Paine, Fox lost a vote of no-confidence and was ushered out of office. Already seeing the chaos in Paris, he feared as to the future of London.
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Chapter 177
Chapter 177
February, 1793
Boston
Though most of Europe convulsed in war, the flow of immigrants surprisingly did not stop. Egyptians and Lebanese would sail west via neutral Russian and Greek and sometimes American ships through the Mediterranean though directly into the trade winds sailing west.
The Irish, British, French, Dutch, etc would usually sail south past Iberia to take the trade winds west from the Canaries and the Azores Islands. Oddly, the fact that this route took them so close to the Iberian Peninsula did not halt too many voyages as the Spanish Fleet tended, for financial and military reasons, to consolidate into two or three large formations. Also, neither the Spanish nor the Portuguese had been overly effective in organizing privateers thus the Republican refugees would typically cross the ocean without harassment, sail up the coast of Florida and disembark at their destinations. Another reason for the lack of harassment was that there were few cargoes worth taking and the Spanish government did not want ships bearing hundreds of French or Briton civilians anchoring in their harbors.
The ships would then sail north to find the most favorable eastward trade winds blowing from the Maritimes to Ireland.
As what were once among three most powerful fleets in Europe had immolated themselves and then allied together, this meant that the waters of northern Europe were safe for shipping, particularly eastbound.
American exports reached Europe almost without exception even as over 20,000 immigrants would arrive in America per year.
Boston would receive a great deal of British, while the Irish and French would predominantly settle in the Maritimes. The Copts and Maronites would continue to accept free land along the Gulf Coast.
Charlestown
Though many Provinces would continue to prosper in the trading environment, South Carolina would soon suffer for lack of West Indian trade. The local rice exports to the slave islands were the foundation of the economy and soon plantations were seeking alternative crops. Cotton grew well here but the arduous work of removing seeds would limit its effectiveness. Rumor had it that several inventors were attempting to resolve that issue but no breakthrough promised to aid the South Carolinians in the near future.
Mired in a new recession, the South Carolinians were beginning to feel constricted by the growing disparity in population and political representation between slave provinces and "non-slave" provinces (many still practiced the institution but had generally passed laws to phase it out one way or another). In order to get the North and South Carolinians, Virginians and Marylanders to sign off on the new Constitution, compromise was demanded and the slaves of these provinces were counted as a full person in the census, thus artificially increasing the slave provinces' representation in Congress.
However, the passage of provincial laws in several more provinces abolishing or phasing out the institution, higher birth rates/survivability rates in the northern provinces, the bulk of the 200,000 immigrants which had arrived over the past fifteen years going to "non-slave" provinces and the continued escape, voluntary manumission or sale of slaves to the West Indies would proportionately reduce the influence of these four provinces in Congress. Threats to filibuster non-related legislation no longer guaranteed that these states could get favorable terms on matters that THEY cared about.
Instead, they saw waning influence, high tariffs benefitting other provinces and no interest whatsoever in renumeration from the inland or deep south provinces which harbored escaped slaves. Some advocated succession from the nation but it was pointed out that this would not resolve any issues related to runaway slaves. If anything, this would make the problem worse as the United American Provinces wouldn't even PRETEND to care about the issue.
Several Congressmen demanded the re-establishment of the slave trade, which Congress as a whole plus the entire Presidential administration refused to even consider. Others wanted new territories to automatically accept slavery but this was rejected as well based upon "Provincial Rights". It was also pointed out that, even if slavery were allowed in the western provinces and territories, there simply were not enough slaves to go around. At best, the 200,000 or so slaves (now only 5% of the nation's population) would be shipped west, leaving the Carolinas, Virginia, etc, bereft. This somewhat defeated the point.
South Carolina and Virginia, disliking the new wave of manumissions they were seeing elsewhere in the nation (it had become apparent that, once free blacks reached a certain percentage of the black population, the quantity of slaves liberated among the remainder increased exponentially), would pass laws making manumission more difficult or demanding that the slaves depart their borders within thirty days. These provinces continued to stagnate as the slave population remained steady while more and more slaves found freedom legally or illicitly elsewhere. By 1793, there were half as many free blacks in the country as slaves, a phenomena also taking places in San Dominigue and Santo Domingo and Cuba, where the French and Spanish had long made emancipation more socially possible, particularly with the mixed race descendants of whites. Maryland was already starting to see this practice increase and free blacks made up much of Baltimore.
Few migrants from America or abroad were interested in travelling to the slave provinces. Who would cross the sea to voluntarily do the work of slaves?
Rather than a massive sociological shift, the mid-southern states would just descend further into political irrelevance as none of the major political leaders of the day were interested in being the institution's champion, most notably Laurens, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
February, 1793
Boston
Though most of Europe convulsed in war, the flow of immigrants surprisingly did not stop. Egyptians and Lebanese would sail west via neutral Russian and Greek and sometimes American ships through the Mediterranean though directly into the trade winds sailing west.
The Irish, British, French, Dutch, etc would usually sail south past Iberia to take the trade winds west from the Canaries and the Azores Islands. Oddly, the fact that this route took them so close to the Iberian Peninsula did not halt too many voyages as the Spanish Fleet tended, for financial and military reasons, to consolidate into two or three large formations. Also, neither the Spanish nor the Portuguese had been overly effective in organizing privateers thus the Republican refugees would typically cross the ocean without harassment, sail up the coast of Florida and disembark at their destinations. Another reason for the lack of harassment was that there were few cargoes worth taking and the Spanish government did not want ships bearing hundreds of French or Briton civilians anchoring in their harbors.
The ships would then sail north to find the most favorable eastward trade winds blowing from the Maritimes to Ireland.
As what were once among three most powerful fleets in Europe had immolated themselves and then allied together, this meant that the waters of northern Europe were safe for shipping, particularly eastbound.
American exports reached Europe almost without exception even as over 20,000 immigrants would arrive in America per year.
Boston would receive a great deal of British, while the Irish and French would predominantly settle in the Maritimes. The Copts and Maronites would continue to accept free land along the Gulf Coast.
Charlestown
Though many Provinces would continue to prosper in the trading environment, South Carolina would soon suffer for lack of West Indian trade. The local rice exports to the slave islands were the foundation of the economy and soon plantations were seeking alternative crops. Cotton grew well here but the arduous work of removing seeds would limit its effectiveness. Rumor had it that several inventors were attempting to resolve that issue but no breakthrough promised to aid the South Carolinians in the near future.
Mired in a new recession, the South Carolinians were beginning to feel constricted by the growing disparity in population and political representation between slave provinces and "non-slave" provinces (many still practiced the institution but had generally passed laws to phase it out one way or another). In order to get the North and South Carolinians, Virginians and Marylanders to sign off on the new Constitution, compromise was demanded and the slaves of these provinces were counted as a full person in the census, thus artificially increasing the slave provinces' representation in Congress.
However, the passage of provincial laws in several more provinces abolishing or phasing out the institution, higher birth rates/survivability rates in the northern provinces, the bulk of the 200,000 immigrants which had arrived over the past fifteen years going to "non-slave" provinces and the continued escape, voluntary manumission or sale of slaves to the West Indies would proportionately reduce the influence of these four provinces in Congress. Threats to filibuster non-related legislation no longer guaranteed that these states could get favorable terms on matters that THEY cared about.
Instead, they saw waning influence, high tariffs benefitting other provinces and no interest whatsoever in renumeration from the inland or deep south provinces which harbored escaped slaves. Some advocated succession from the nation but it was pointed out that this would not resolve any issues related to runaway slaves. If anything, this would make the problem worse as the United American Provinces wouldn't even PRETEND to care about the issue.
Several Congressmen demanded the re-establishment of the slave trade, which Congress as a whole plus the entire Presidential administration refused to even consider. Others wanted new territories to automatically accept slavery but this was rejected as well based upon "Provincial Rights". It was also pointed out that, even if slavery were allowed in the western provinces and territories, there simply were not enough slaves to go around. At best, the 200,000 or so slaves (now only 5% of the nation's population) would be shipped west, leaving the Carolinas, Virginia, etc, bereft. This somewhat defeated the point.
South Carolina and Virginia, disliking the new wave of manumissions they were seeing elsewhere in the nation (it had become apparent that, once free blacks reached a certain percentage of the black population, the quantity of slaves liberated among the remainder increased exponentially), would pass laws making manumission more difficult or demanding that the slaves depart their borders within thirty days. These provinces continued to stagnate as the slave population remained steady while more and more slaves found freedom legally or illicitly elsewhere. By 1793, there were half as many free blacks in the country as slaves, a phenomena also taking places in San Dominigue and Santo Domingo and Cuba, where the French and Spanish had long made emancipation more socially possible, particularly with the mixed race descendants of whites. Maryland was already starting to see this practice increase and free blacks made up much of Baltimore.
Few migrants from America or abroad were interested in travelling to the slave provinces. Who would cross the sea to voluntarily do the work of slaves?
Rather than a massive sociological shift, the mid-southern states would just descend further into political irrelevance as none of the major political leaders of the day were interested in being the institution's champion, most notably Laurens, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe.
Chapter 178
Chapter 178
April, 1793
Paris
With the violence against the Girodins forcing the moderate faction out of the Convention, the radicals would pass a new law expediting sentencing of treason trials by a five man judge and jury. Hundreds of Girodins, aristocrats (even those loyal to the Revolution), military officers whose lack of success on the battlefield were judged by commissars to be "treasonous", those who questioned the Convention, etc, would face their fate upon the guillotine.
Included among the casualties were all the males of the House of Orleans, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon whom had supported the Revolution. There had been talk in the earlier days of the Revolution of establishing a new Constitutional monarchy under Orleans, though this never came to pass and now never would. Soon, the guillotine was executing twenty people per day, then forty. Accusations were made by those in political influence to settle old scores dating back to the ancient regime. No one was safe.
In truth, this was a desperate attempt to placate the mob of Paris, without that city, it was likely that the Convention would fall as regional interests were putting in place their own armies and legislatures.
While Marat was in his element, Robespierre was more concerned with the minor fact that the campaign season was about to begin and the Revolutionary movement was imploding from within. He was not entirely sure even that an army would be in place to face the German Confederation, Habsburg and Spanish assaults upon the nation in the spring.
Rather than solve these macro issues, the National Guard assumed command of much of Paris, their sans-culotte radicalism instilling fear in the Convention to such an extent that even Marat and Herbert were beginning to fear they'd gone too far. By spring, the levee en masse had only summoned 100,000 men from northern and northeastern France, barely a third of the total from 1792.
Lyon
The city of Lyon would soon host an alternative directory, comprised of the Girordins and other moderates whom would seek out allies where they could find them, including some closet monarchists like Lafayette and Dumouriez. While such Royalist sentiment was probably secondary to the counter-revolutionary feelings spurred by the anti-clerical measures (the Church was not nearly as loathed in the country as in Paris), it did exist.
Danton, whom had actually passed the legislation abolishing the monarchy, was caught in the awkward position of discovering that he may have to summon home a King in order to save the country from Marat. But the House of Bourbon had so thoroughly condemned all Revolutionary activity and now supported the invasion of France by the ancient enemies, the Habsburgs, that it was impossible to even consider inviting Louis XVII to power. His uncle Charles in particular was a virulent autocrat and this was the man who held sway over the teenaged exiled King.
Most of the southern cities - Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille and Toulon had joined a new coalition over the past months against Paris, a position only hardened by the mass executions killing almost indiscriminately. By summer, the divisions between Paris and the provincial cities led to a defacto state of civil war which most concluded would lead to defeat of France by the foreign Monarchist armies.
However, almost by providence, the French Republic was at least momentarily saved by perhaps the one person they'd least expect.
Emperor Charles of Austria.
The Palatinate, Kingdom of Burgundy
The King of Burgundy, prior to the Revolution, was effectively a puppet of France. Used as a buffer between France and the Dutch Republic, the German Confederation and Austria, it was a useful mishmash of ethnicities, language and religion whose existence served the purposes of its neighbors more than its citizens. Ruled by a collection of weak rulers since its inception, many questioned how long Burgundy would exist in its current form.
This would prove accurate as Flanders erupted into revolution even as the King of Burgundy attempted to make peace with France. By 1792, the King had been ejected from Flanders back into his German domains. The armies of the German Confederation and Austria would march through his territories, effectively removing the King of Burgundy from the list of decision makers. However, the Revolutionaries would surprisingly hold against this coalition for two campaign seasons. By 1793, there was not portion of France, Flanders or the Dutch Republic under occupation. Divisions formed in the already fragile Royalist alliance bourn of frustration.
Eventually, Emperor Charles would reconsider his actions, especially when he noticed that the forces of Austria occupied most of the Palatinate as well has two-thirds of Switzerland (mainly the German and Italian-speaking portion which was a mix of Protestant and Catholic). Rather than put his weak nephew back upon his throne in Paris, Charles began to realize that he was already well on his way to his long-cherished dream of uniting Germany under a single throne (beyond the nominal title of Holy Roman Emperor which he'd long since cast aside in contempt many years ago). If one counted the Swiss and German Burgundians as part of Germany, then he was half-way to this goal as he'd already swallowed Swabia earlier in the war and added it to his core territories of Austria, Bavaria, Franconia (and other regions with large German-speaking populations like Bohemia and Silesia).
Fighting a war for the benefit of someone else was not exactly in the character of Emperor Charles. Indeed, if the French were descending into civil war, they'd fall apart soon anyway and probably beg for Louis XVII to return, so why should Charles bankrupt himself further when he could concentrate upon acquisitions?
The Emperor would announce that "Revolutionary" activities in the Palatinate regions of Burgundy and the eastern German-dominated Cantons of the Swiss Confederation left him no other choice but to focus his energies of "returning sanity" to these lands by assuming control. This would preserve the future of Europe, he stated.
Naturally the outcry among his German Confederation allies, particularly Brunswick, Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia condemned the action and, within weeks, the armies along the French border were called back east to press the matter in Germany. Having already been betrayed once by Austria when Charles seized Baden and Wurttemberg, this was a step too far. The Papal States and Tuscany were no less outraged. Even Poland, whose aging King Emmanuel I, would condemn the action.
To France's immense surprise, the bulk of the Monarchist foreign armies had turned upon one another. Only Spain actively prepared for invasion of France in the spring of 1793 and that was against the border controlled by the Girondist faction. This allowed the Directory in Paris to reorganize their armies and point them south against Lyon even as mass executions continued in Paris.
April, 1793
Paris
With the violence against the Girodins forcing the moderate faction out of the Convention, the radicals would pass a new law expediting sentencing of treason trials by a five man judge and jury. Hundreds of Girodins, aristocrats (even those loyal to the Revolution), military officers whose lack of success on the battlefield were judged by commissars to be "treasonous", those who questioned the Convention, etc, would face their fate upon the guillotine.
Included among the casualties were all the males of the House of Orleans, a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon whom had supported the Revolution. There had been talk in the earlier days of the Revolution of establishing a new Constitutional monarchy under Orleans, though this never came to pass and now never would. Soon, the guillotine was executing twenty people per day, then forty. Accusations were made by those in political influence to settle old scores dating back to the ancient regime. No one was safe.
In truth, this was a desperate attempt to placate the mob of Paris, without that city, it was likely that the Convention would fall as regional interests were putting in place their own armies and legislatures.
While Marat was in his element, Robespierre was more concerned with the minor fact that the campaign season was about to begin and the Revolutionary movement was imploding from within. He was not entirely sure even that an army would be in place to face the German Confederation, Habsburg and Spanish assaults upon the nation in the spring.
Rather than solve these macro issues, the National Guard assumed command of much of Paris, their sans-culotte radicalism instilling fear in the Convention to such an extent that even Marat and Herbert were beginning to fear they'd gone too far. By spring, the levee en masse had only summoned 100,000 men from northern and northeastern France, barely a third of the total from 1792.
Lyon
The city of Lyon would soon host an alternative directory, comprised of the Girordins and other moderates whom would seek out allies where they could find them, including some closet monarchists like Lafayette and Dumouriez. While such Royalist sentiment was probably secondary to the counter-revolutionary feelings spurred by the anti-clerical measures (the Church was not nearly as loathed in the country as in Paris), it did exist.
Danton, whom had actually passed the legislation abolishing the monarchy, was caught in the awkward position of discovering that he may have to summon home a King in order to save the country from Marat. But the House of Bourbon had so thoroughly condemned all Revolutionary activity and now supported the invasion of France by the ancient enemies, the Habsburgs, that it was impossible to even consider inviting Louis XVII to power. His uncle Charles in particular was a virulent autocrat and this was the man who held sway over the teenaged exiled King.
Most of the southern cities - Lyon, Bordeaux, Nice, Marseille and Toulon had joined a new coalition over the past months against Paris, a position only hardened by the mass executions killing almost indiscriminately. By summer, the divisions between Paris and the provincial cities led to a defacto state of civil war which most concluded would lead to defeat of France by the foreign Monarchist armies.
However, almost by providence, the French Republic was at least momentarily saved by perhaps the one person they'd least expect.
Emperor Charles of Austria.
The Palatinate, Kingdom of Burgundy
The King of Burgundy, prior to the Revolution, was effectively a puppet of France. Used as a buffer between France and the Dutch Republic, the German Confederation and Austria, it was a useful mishmash of ethnicities, language and religion whose existence served the purposes of its neighbors more than its citizens. Ruled by a collection of weak rulers since its inception, many questioned how long Burgundy would exist in its current form.
This would prove accurate as Flanders erupted into revolution even as the King of Burgundy attempted to make peace with France. By 1792, the King had been ejected from Flanders back into his German domains. The armies of the German Confederation and Austria would march through his territories, effectively removing the King of Burgundy from the list of decision makers. However, the Revolutionaries would surprisingly hold against this coalition for two campaign seasons. By 1793, there was not portion of France, Flanders or the Dutch Republic under occupation. Divisions formed in the already fragile Royalist alliance bourn of frustration.
Eventually, Emperor Charles would reconsider his actions, especially when he noticed that the forces of Austria occupied most of the Palatinate as well has two-thirds of Switzerland (mainly the German and Italian-speaking portion which was a mix of Protestant and Catholic). Rather than put his weak nephew back upon his throne in Paris, Charles began to realize that he was already well on his way to his long-cherished dream of uniting Germany under a single throne (beyond the nominal title of Holy Roman Emperor which he'd long since cast aside in contempt many years ago). If one counted the Swiss and German Burgundians as part of Germany, then he was half-way to this goal as he'd already swallowed Swabia earlier in the war and added it to his core territories of Austria, Bavaria, Franconia (and other regions with large German-speaking populations like Bohemia and Silesia).
Fighting a war for the benefit of someone else was not exactly in the character of Emperor Charles. Indeed, if the French were descending into civil war, they'd fall apart soon anyway and probably beg for Louis XVII to return, so why should Charles bankrupt himself further when he could concentrate upon acquisitions?
The Emperor would announce that "Revolutionary" activities in the Palatinate regions of Burgundy and the eastern German-dominated Cantons of the Swiss Confederation left him no other choice but to focus his energies of "returning sanity" to these lands by assuming control. This would preserve the future of Europe, he stated.
Naturally the outcry among his German Confederation allies, particularly Brunswick, Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia condemned the action and, within weeks, the armies along the French border were called back east to press the matter in Germany. Having already been betrayed once by Austria when Charles seized Baden and Wurttemberg, this was a step too far. The Papal States and Tuscany were no less outraged. Even Poland, whose aging King Emmanuel I, would condemn the action.
To France's immense surprise, the bulk of the Monarchist foreign armies had turned upon one another. Only Spain actively prepared for invasion of France in the spring of 1793 and that was against the border controlled by the Girondist faction. This allowed the Directory in Paris to reorganize their armies and point them south against Lyon even as mass executions continued in Paris.
Yeah, I would hate to be the Emperor when his sister, the dowager Queen of France, finds out that her brother gave up the chance to put Louis XVII back on the throne so he could acquire some Swiss Cantons and the Palatinate. It is more than possible that the Bourbons would leave Vienna in a huff though I'm not sure they would do so for financial reasons. I have no doubt that any pension the Emperor gives them would greatly exceed whatever they could squeeze out of the New France taxpayer.
Chapter 179
Chapter 179
July, 1793
Lyon
Chairman Danton of the "Committee of Safety" would hastily summon the commanders of the armies of the Pyrenees (in Catalonia) and the Alps (in Piedmont) and managed to get their loyalty. General Dumouriez in Catalonia was actually from Cambrai, along the Flemish border, but was getting increasingly revolted by the actions of the Directory. General Dugommier was born in the West Indies and had not particular affinity for the mob now running Paris.
Only recently, the entire male line of the House of Conde had followed the House of Orleans to the guillotine. Virtually every noble within reach of the Directory were facing show trials and summary execution. There seemed to be no discrimination between those whom had supported the Revolution or opposed it, nor that of women, the aged and even some children barely large enough to fit in the guillotine.
Only a small portion of the Directory supported such actions (even Robespierre thought it was taking things too far) but the Herbertists controlled the Directory as they controlled the National Guard and the mob. Thus Paris continued to overly influence the nation. The anti-Parisian sentiment would later be termed "Federalist", though this did not hint that most of the opposition were secessionists in any way. Most desired to remain attacked to a strong unified France, many didn't even want decentralized government, just reform of the disaster ongoing in Paris.
Danton survived the purge in Paris by fleeing but many of his allies did not. Less Radical than Paris, the provincial cities were fed up with the chaos and wanted an end to the violence. Unfortunately, provincial cities, by definition, tended not to unify very well. Thus, when the first Directory Army marched upon Lyon, the other cities did not march to their defense.
In August, Lyon was surrounded by 40,000 soldiers and defended by only 20,000.
Paris
Edmund Burke had been UAP's (United American Provinces) Minister to France for two years and had been horrified at the violent turn to the Revolution that made a mockery of civil rights and law. Born in Ireland to a Catholic mother and a Catholic turned Protestant father whom died young, Burke had been raised a Catholic and eventually migrated to America in his teens. Among the most eloquent writes and thinkers of his age, Burke had been a driving force behind the American Revolution and wrote the Declaration of Principles. Initially supportive of the British and French revolution, he had quickly become disenchanted with the loathsome turn the situation had taken.
Perhaps unwisely, the Minister would speak of his opinions and his rented home was ransacked by rioters. Burke spent the evening barricaded in the attic with his servants, a musket aimed at the door. Burke feared that his diplomatic credentials may not save him in the future and gave a sigh of relief when his government summoned him home in protest of Mr. Genet's outrageous actions in Charlestown. Ironically, the French radical would soon realize that his faction, the Girondists, had been evicted from Paris and pled for asylum for he was quite certain a return to France would result in his execution. Amused, Secretary of State Hamilton would agree provided that the Frenchman shut his damn mouth. Eventually, Genet would marry into the New York aristocracy and sire a large family.
With Burke's departure, there was not technically an Ambassador from America. However, a "Special Envoy" was put in place to communicate America's deep anger at the actions of France. This was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had done a dismal job as Governor during the war in harnessing the most populated and wealthiest colony to fight the British. He'd been forced out of office and replaced by Lawrence Washington. Eventually, Jefferson returned to politics. A brilliant and thoughtful man, Jefferson saw gentry as protective knights of the peace, ruling benevolently over their inferiors, be they white trash or slaves. Oddly, Jefferson was among the few plantation owners in Virginia to speak of the end of slavery. While he believed that negroes may do well as free men, he believed too much blood had been shed for them to live together in peace
Jefferson would not approve of the violence but had become increasingly radical himself over the years and, unlike anyone else in the American government, was willing to live in Paris. His daughter Martha accompanied him as well under the supervision of a teenaged black maid named Sally Hemmings. Jefferson would revel in the chaos while his secretary, a fellow Virginian named Monroe, would look on in horror.
July, 1793
Lyon
Chairman Danton of the "Committee of Safety" would hastily summon the commanders of the armies of the Pyrenees (in Catalonia) and the Alps (in Piedmont) and managed to get their loyalty. General Dumouriez in Catalonia was actually from Cambrai, along the Flemish border, but was getting increasingly revolted by the actions of the Directory. General Dugommier was born in the West Indies and had not particular affinity for the mob now running Paris.
Only recently, the entire male line of the House of Conde had followed the House of Orleans to the guillotine. Virtually every noble within reach of the Directory were facing show trials and summary execution. There seemed to be no discrimination between those whom had supported the Revolution or opposed it, nor that of women, the aged and even some children barely large enough to fit in the guillotine.
Only a small portion of the Directory supported such actions (even Robespierre thought it was taking things too far) but the Herbertists controlled the Directory as they controlled the National Guard and the mob. Thus Paris continued to overly influence the nation. The anti-Parisian sentiment would later be termed "Federalist", though this did not hint that most of the opposition were secessionists in any way. Most desired to remain attacked to a strong unified France, many didn't even want decentralized government, just reform of the disaster ongoing in Paris.
Danton survived the purge in Paris by fleeing but many of his allies did not. Less Radical than Paris, the provincial cities were fed up with the chaos and wanted an end to the violence. Unfortunately, provincial cities, by definition, tended not to unify very well. Thus, when the first Directory Army marched upon Lyon, the other cities did not march to their defense.
In August, Lyon was surrounded by 40,000 soldiers and defended by only 20,000.
Paris
Edmund Burke had been UAP's (United American Provinces) Minister to France for two years and had been horrified at the violent turn to the Revolution that made a mockery of civil rights and law. Born in Ireland to a Catholic mother and a Catholic turned Protestant father whom died young, Burke had been raised a Catholic and eventually migrated to America in his teens. Among the most eloquent writes and thinkers of his age, Burke had been a driving force behind the American Revolution and wrote the Declaration of Principles. Initially supportive of the British and French revolution, he had quickly become disenchanted with the loathsome turn the situation had taken.
Perhaps unwisely, the Minister would speak of his opinions and his rented home was ransacked by rioters. Burke spent the evening barricaded in the attic with his servants, a musket aimed at the door. Burke feared that his diplomatic credentials may not save him in the future and gave a sigh of relief when his government summoned him home in protest of Mr. Genet's outrageous actions in Charlestown. Ironically, the French radical would soon realize that his faction, the Girondists, had been evicted from Paris and pled for asylum for he was quite certain a return to France would result in his execution. Amused, Secretary of State Hamilton would agree provided that the Frenchman shut his damn mouth. Eventually, Genet would marry into the New York aristocracy and sire a large family.
With Burke's departure, there was not technically an Ambassador from America. However, a "Special Envoy" was put in place to communicate America's deep anger at the actions of France. This was Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had done a dismal job as Governor during the war in harnessing the most populated and wealthiest colony to fight the British. He'd been forced out of office and replaced by Lawrence Washington. Eventually, Jefferson returned to politics. A brilliant and thoughtful man, Jefferson saw gentry as protective knights of the peace, ruling benevolently over their inferiors, be they white trash or slaves. Oddly, Jefferson was among the few plantation owners in Virginia to speak of the end of slavery. While he believed that negroes may do well as free men, he believed too much blood had been shed for them to live together in peace
Jefferson would not approve of the violence but had become increasingly radical himself over the years and, unlike anyone else in the American government, was willing to live in Paris. His daughter Martha accompanied him as well under the supervision of a teenaged black maid named Sally Hemmings. Jefferson would revel in the chaos while his secretary, a fellow Virginian named Monroe, would look on in horror.
Chapter 180
Chapter 180
August, 1793
Burgundy
Though the armies maneuvered about for several weeks, no major battles were fought between the German Confederation and the Austrian Empire until August. Finally, the allies agreed upon a command structure under King Charles of Brunswick and launched an invasion of Austrian-occupied Palatinate.
With over 80,000 soldiers on hand, the forces of Burgundy, Brunswick, Saxony, Brandenburg-Prussia, Mecklenburg, Hesse, etc, would strike a decisive blow against the Habsburg armies which were also required to guard against a French assault from the west.
After a series of short, sharp battles, the Germans managed to drive the Austrians from the northern Palatinate and even press a bit into the southern regions.
That was when the Emperor ordered the Army of Bohemia and Silesia, over 40,000 strong, to strike at Saxony. This proved to be a grievous error as, earlier in the year, the aged King Emmanual I of Poland would not only refuse to support the Emperor's demands for assistance against France but would actively ally with the German Confederation in a defensive pact. The Emperor did not take this seriously as the King was only on the throne of Poland because Maria Theresa demanded it. But the relentless aggression and betrayals by Emperor Charles had severed any ties of loyalty which Emmanuel may have possessed for the Habsburg Dynasty. The last thing Emmanual wanted was to be surrounded on two sides by the forces of Charles (and Russia on a third side. Poland was not gifted by God to be in a safe neighborhood).
Thus, the Poland Army, having been quietly built up over the course of several years, would strike into Silesia and Saxony, the Polish Cavalry in particular performing quite well. The last major power in Europe to withhold itself from the fray had finally chosen a side. Tuscany and the Papal States began to consider this may be the last chance they have to cast off the Habsburg hegemony in Europe and would wait on the sidelines to see if the Germans and Poles managed to hold their own against the Habsburgs.
By August, the combatants of central Europe had, for all intents and purposes, forgotten France.
Anatolia
For the past several years, the Russian Empire under Peter III had attempted to prosecute a conquest of the Near East in order to seize ports in Basra and the Suez (and all along the Levant). While he succeeded in seizing Basra and Suez, neither possession did overly much for the Russian Empire as of yet as the bases were so far from the Russian core domain. In the end, Peter III realized that he would have to assume complete control over the Near East, including Anatolia and Arabia and possibly even Persia.
For centuries, these Empires had stymied Russia but recent advances in technology and tactics proved decisive. Russia had not lost a major battle to Anatolia or Persia in decades. Most battles, in fact, were massive victories. With the tendrils of the Russian Empire now snaking through the Middle East from Armenia-Assyria to Mesopotamia, the fragile link seemed threatened from both East (Persia) and West (The Ottoman in Anatolia).
Peter determined that seizing the Ottoman would ease any problems in Egypt and the Levant. The latter was desired for access to a potential canal to the Far East, the former due to the presence of Jerusalem, the Holiest Christian city, whose possession by Peter would bring enormous prestige.
Though Austria had repeatedly badgered Peter for aid against the godless French Revolutionaries, the Czar steadfastly refused. Given recent events including the Austrian betrayal of their own allies and the apparently counter-revolution in France, Peter realized that his father Peter II (the Liberator) had been right to stay as far from European affairs as possible. The Czar could dispatch 100,000 soldiers across a continent to help someone else...or send 100,000 soldiers south to fortify his own Empire. It was not the most difficult choice Peter III would ever make.
Despite his assumptions that the Ottoman armies would never be fit to fight a Russian force trained by the great Prince Frederick of Prussia, the Czar would soon discover that the Ottomans had finally attempted to modernize their tactics and weaponry. For the first time in generations, the Turks were not collapsing before the massed volleys and heavy artillery bombardments. And the mountainous terrain of Anatolia would prove treacherous to supply an army even a few miles inland from the sea.
Still, the Russian army under an aging Suvorov advanced slowly through Anatolia's hills even General Kutusov pivoted west from Assyria-Armenia's southern border, driving the Ottoman AND local Arab Princes before them. General Bagration, a young Georgian, had been responsible for rallying the Alewite, Druze and Maronite peoples of the Syria against the Arabs which dominated the inland and the Ottoman Turks which ruled over Syria for so long.
By 1793, the Russian armies were slowly piercing the Turkish defenses in Anatolia as they drove relentlessly through the peninsula en route to the Ottoman capital of Ankara even as the Russian Army of the Transcaucasus would enter the north Syrian city of Aleppo.
The Nile
Commodore John Paul had finally received his recall from Manhattan. The Secretary of the Navy would demand to know just why the hell he was tarrying. The good news was that the Commodore had seized so many Barbary pirate ships (and taken "salaries" for his partial administration of Alexandria) that the expedition largely paid for itself. But the Secretary of the Navy was adamant that the majority of the American ships and marines return to American shores. Evidently, there was trouble brewing with the Spanish and the Provinces were not remotely so rich in martial forces that they could expend so much from so far away. It had been a struggle just to allow nominal forces to remain in Alexandria, Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli, where the assorted allies remained sheltered behind the stout walls of these cities. To give up now, Paul had argued by letter, would mean ceding the ability for America to ever project power in the Mediterranean.
He left half a dozen ships to patrol the African coast utilizing these ports as bases. While the Danes, Tuscans, Papal troops, Russians (in the case of Alexandria) and Greeks each kept forces on hand, these ports still required a population. Many thousands of Coptic and Egyptian Greeks would soon take up residence not only in these African towns but in Lebanon (Syria), Crete, Cyprus, Izmar (one of the handful of Greek enclaves in Anatolia) and Malta as well. In many cases, these settlements would be stepping stones for the Copts who got tired of being surrounded by Arabs, Berbers, Greeks or Catholics and eventually sail for America over the coming decades.
August, 1793
Burgundy
Though the armies maneuvered about for several weeks, no major battles were fought between the German Confederation and the Austrian Empire until August. Finally, the allies agreed upon a command structure under King Charles of Brunswick and launched an invasion of Austrian-occupied Palatinate.
With over 80,000 soldiers on hand, the forces of Burgundy, Brunswick, Saxony, Brandenburg-Prussia, Mecklenburg, Hesse, etc, would strike a decisive blow against the Habsburg armies which were also required to guard against a French assault from the west.
After a series of short, sharp battles, the Germans managed to drive the Austrians from the northern Palatinate and even press a bit into the southern regions.
That was when the Emperor ordered the Army of Bohemia and Silesia, over 40,000 strong, to strike at Saxony. This proved to be a grievous error as, earlier in the year, the aged King Emmanual I of Poland would not only refuse to support the Emperor's demands for assistance against France but would actively ally with the German Confederation in a defensive pact. The Emperor did not take this seriously as the King was only on the throne of Poland because Maria Theresa demanded it. But the relentless aggression and betrayals by Emperor Charles had severed any ties of loyalty which Emmanuel may have possessed for the Habsburg Dynasty. The last thing Emmanual wanted was to be surrounded on two sides by the forces of Charles (and Russia on a third side. Poland was not gifted by God to be in a safe neighborhood).
Thus, the Poland Army, having been quietly built up over the course of several years, would strike into Silesia and Saxony, the Polish Cavalry in particular performing quite well. The last major power in Europe to withhold itself from the fray had finally chosen a side. Tuscany and the Papal States began to consider this may be the last chance they have to cast off the Habsburg hegemony in Europe and would wait on the sidelines to see if the Germans and Poles managed to hold their own against the Habsburgs.
By August, the combatants of central Europe had, for all intents and purposes, forgotten France.
Anatolia
For the past several years, the Russian Empire under Peter III had attempted to prosecute a conquest of the Near East in order to seize ports in Basra and the Suez (and all along the Levant). While he succeeded in seizing Basra and Suez, neither possession did overly much for the Russian Empire as of yet as the bases were so far from the Russian core domain. In the end, Peter III realized that he would have to assume complete control over the Near East, including Anatolia and Arabia and possibly even Persia.
For centuries, these Empires had stymied Russia but recent advances in technology and tactics proved decisive. Russia had not lost a major battle to Anatolia or Persia in decades. Most battles, in fact, were massive victories. With the tendrils of the Russian Empire now snaking through the Middle East from Armenia-Assyria to Mesopotamia, the fragile link seemed threatened from both East (Persia) and West (The Ottoman in Anatolia).
Peter determined that seizing the Ottoman would ease any problems in Egypt and the Levant. The latter was desired for access to a potential canal to the Far East, the former due to the presence of Jerusalem, the Holiest Christian city, whose possession by Peter would bring enormous prestige.
Though Austria had repeatedly badgered Peter for aid against the godless French Revolutionaries, the Czar steadfastly refused. Given recent events including the Austrian betrayal of their own allies and the apparently counter-revolution in France, Peter realized that his father Peter II (the Liberator) had been right to stay as far from European affairs as possible. The Czar could dispatch 100,000 soldiers across a continent to help someone else...or send 100,000 soldiers south to fortify his own Empire. It was not the most difficult choice Peter III would ever make.
Despite his assumptions that the Ottoman armies would never be fit to fight a Russian force trained by the great Prince Frederick of Prussia, the Czar would soon discover that the Ottomans had finally attempted to modernize their tactics and weaponry. For the first time in generations, the Turks were not collapsing before the massed volleys and heavy artillery bombardments. And the mountainous terrain of Anatolia would prove treacherous to supply an army even a few miles inland from the sea.
Still, the Russian army under an aging Suvorov advanced slowly through Anatolia's hills even General Kutusov pivoted west from Assyria-Armenia's southern border, driving the Ottoman AND local Arab Princes before them. General Bagration, a young Georgian, had been responsible for rallying the Alewite, Druze and Maronite peoples of the Syria against the Arabs which dominated the inland and the Ottoman Turks which ruled over Syria for so long.
By 1793, the Russian armies were slowly piercing the Turkish defenses in Anatolia as they drove relentlessly through the peninsula en route to the Ottoman capital of Ankara even as the Russian Army of the Transcaucasus would enter the north Syrian city of Aleppo.
The Nile
Commodore John Paul had finally received his recall from Manhattan. The Secretary of the Navy would demand to know just why the hell he was tarrying. The good news was that the Commodore had seized so many Barbary pirate ships (and taken "salaries" for his partial administration of Alexandria) that the expedition largely paid for itself. But the Secretary of the Navy was adamant that the majority of the American ships and marines return to American shores. Evidently, there was trouble brewing with the Spanish and the Provinces were not remotely so rich in martial forces that they could expend so much from so far away. It had been a struggle just to allow nominal forces to remain in Alexandria, Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli, where the assorted allies remained sheltered behind the stout walls of these cities. To give up now, Paul had argued by letter, would mean ceding the ability for America to ever project power in the Mediterranean.
He left half a dozen ships to patrol the African coast utilizing these ports as bases. While the Danes, Tuscans, Papal troops, Russians (in the case of Alexandria) and Greeks each kept forces on hand, these ports still required a population. Many thousands of Coptic and Egyptian Greeks would soon take up residence not only in these African towns but in Lebanon (Syria), Crete, Cyprus, Izmar (one of the handful of Greek enclaves in Anatolia) and Malta as well. In many cases, these settlements would be stepping stones for the Copts who got tired of being surrounded by Arabs, Berbers, Greeks or Catholics and eventually sail for America over the coming decades.
Chapter 181
Chapter 181
November, 1793
Northern Persia
Lotf Ali Khan, the nominal Zand Dynasty Ruler of Persia, would hesitantly conceded the Azerbaijan and Mesopotamia regions to Russia. Both had actually been conquered years before but the Zand Dynasty had never officially accepted this until the civil war wracked Persia. The vile Mohammad Khan of the Qajar tribe was savaging his northern stronghold with unprecedented cruelty. In addition, the Durranis Empire to the East was raiding into Persia. Lotf Ali Khan knew he could not fight all of these battles at once.
In return for his acceptance of Russian sovereignty over the Azerbaijanis and Mesopotamians (though would strong protections of the Shia's of these regions), the Russians agreed to arm the Zand "Protector of the People". Lotf Ali Khan wondered if he'd just made a deal with the devil but the Qajar slaughter continued against any who defied them. The Qajars drew their strength from the Turkic warrior tribes of the north, not the cultured ethnic Persians. This sort of behavior took place upon the northern plains, not in one of the most ancient and honorable Empires in World History. The idea of Mohammad Khan ruling all of Persia was sickening.
Lotf Ali Khan, with some modern Russian artillery (manned by Armenian and Georgian "volunteers") would march north to Teheran, the stronghold of Mohammad Khan.
Ankara
Even as the winter set in, a massive battle between 40,000 Russians and 50,000 Ottoman Turks took place to the east of Ankara. With a mass attack, the Ottomans were routed, the new capital of the Empire taken just as Istanbul had fallen many years before. With the Bureaucracy captured, the Ottoman would fall into infighting as a dozen factions battled over control and "protection" of the Porte, whom had fled southwest.
Already, the Russian Empire was carving out pieces of the Ottoman and Levant into sections, hoping to at least pacify SOME of the natives via negotiation. The Alevi people, whom practiced an odd form of Islam, had been quietly repressed by the Ottoman Sunnis for generations. The Russian Governor would offer full right to practice their religion without any financial penalty as well as open lower level government positions to them. Other boons like trading privileges, eliminating of the local version of guilds, etc, were offered. Much of the Alevi population, like other peoples of the Levant and Mesopotamia (many Kurdish tribes, Alawites, Druze, Maronite Christians, etc), would find this offer reasonable. Of course, the Georgians, Armenians, Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, Trebizond Greeks, etc, would be able to tell these peoples EXACTLY what happened to people who accepted Russian promises of autonomy.
By winter, the Russians would take upon the task of bringing Anatolia under control.
In the meantime, the southern armies would strike through the Arab controlled territories to reach Damascus.
Neither the Ottoman Turks nor the Sunni Arabs of the region would take these defeats as an admission of surrender. Slowly over the coming years, the Russians would be forced to lean more heavily upon the cooperation of local peoples like the Alevis, Alawites, Druze, etc to maintain order and, eventually, seize the Holy Land.
November, 1793
Northern Persia
Lotf Ali Khan, the nominal Zand Dynasty Ruler of Persia, would hesitantly conceded the Azerbaijan and Mesopotamia regions to Russia. Both had actually been conquered years before but the Zand Dynasty had never officially accepted this until the civil war wracked Persia. The vile Mohammad Khan of the Qajar tribe was savaging his northern stronghold with unprecedented cruelty. In addition, the Durranis Empire to the East was raiding into Persia. Lotf Ali Khan knew he could not fight all of these battles at once.
In return for his acceptance of Russian sovereignty over the Azerbaijanis and Mesopotamians (though would strong protections of the Shia's of these regions), the Russians agreed to arm the Zand "Protector of the People". Lotf Ali Khan wondered if he'd just made a deal with the devil but the Qajar slaughter continued against any who defied them. The Qajars drew their strength from the Turkic warrior tribes of the north, not the cultured ethnic Persians. This sort of behavior took place upon the northern plains, not in one of the most ancient and honorable Empires in World History. The idea of Mohammad Khan ruling all of Persia was sickening.
Lotf Ali Khan, with some modern Russian artillery (manned by Armenian and Georgian "volunteers") would march north to Teheran, the stronghold of Mohammad Khan.
Ankara
Even as the winter set in, a massive battle between 40,000 Russians and 50,000 Ottoman Turks took place to the east of Ankara. With a mass attack, the Ottomans were routed, the new capital of the Empire taken just as Istanbul had fallen many years before. With the Bureaucracy captured, the Ottoman would fall into infighting as a dozen factions battled over control and "protection" of the Porte, whom had fled southwest.
Already, the Russian Empire was carving out pieces of the Ottoman and Levant into sections, hoping to at least pacify SOME of the natives via negotiation. The Alevi people, whom practiced an odd form of Islam, had been quietly repressed by the Ottoman Sunnis for generations. The Russian Governor would offer full right to practice their religion without any financial penalty as well as open lower level government positions to them. Other boons like trading privileges, eliminating of the local version of guilds, etc, were offered. Much of the Alevi population, like other peoples of the Levant and Mesopotamia (many Kurdish tribes, Alawites, Druze, Maronite Christians, etc), would find this offer reasonable. Of course, the Georgians, Armenians, Assyrians, Azerbaijanis, Trebizond Greeks, etc, would be able to tell these peoples EXACTLY what happened to people who accepted Russian promises of autonomy.
By winter, the Russians would take upon the task of bringing Anatolia under control.
In the meantime, the southern armies would strike through the Arab controlled territories to reach Damascus.
Neither the Ottoman Turks nor the Sunni Arabs of the region would take these defeats as an admission of surrender. Slowly over the coming years, the Russians would be forced to lean more heavily upon the cooperation of local peoples like the Alevis, Alawites, Druze, etc to maintain order and, eventually, seize the Holy Land.
It's apparently the Age of Overextension. Let all supply routes be thin, your offensives stagnate, and internal administrations be rebellious!
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
Given that you implied that many Russians will end up immigrating to the New World, it's not as if Russia can rely on its old tactic of spamming Cossacks into the Middle East.
Cuāuhtemōc
Banned
More carrot than stick especially since Russian forces are being bolstered by the religious minorities in the area.