I really like this timeline!
The acceleration of modernity is always a fun trope.
Thanks! Aborting the Congress of Vienna postwar consensus in Europe and convincing the U.S. that it's a choice between centralization and victimization has definitely sped up a lot of developments.
And now, after much delay…
King Milan had only just secured the throne in Kragujevac, and his father still had supporters in Serbia. He chose to rally the nation around him in the simplest way possible—declaring war on a seemingly weak and beleaguered foreign adversary. In January of 1838, with winter still raging, he led his army across the border into Bosnia, issuing his official declaration of war the morning of the invasion. This is why, in many countries, the Bosnia-Rumelia War is also known as the War of the Orthodox Alliance.
There is evidence that Sultan Husein either knew the invasion was coming or anticipated that it would. Before the last Ramadan, he had redeployed many of his loyalists back into Bosnia. Again, it may have been either foreknowledge or intuition that inspired him to order them stationed in Raška and Leskovçe[1], protecting the narrow isthmus of land that connected the Sultan’s homeland of Bosnia to the rest of his dwarf empire. In expecting an attack there, Husein was right; but for the wrong reason, though he had no way of knowing this at the time.
Milan began with an attack on Raška. If the town fell, the road to Yeni Pazar[2] would be open. Yeni Pazar was a relatively wealthy civilian market town with a large Muslim population that would have to be defended. With little chance of reinforcement, the Gradascevician army concentrated itself (as best it could in winter) in Raška and Yeni Pazar.
But this was a feint. At the end of January, the bulk of his army appeared out of the snow at the gates of Pristina. The city fell without a fight—the garrison were bandits, not diehards[3], and in the face of a superior force would keep retreating until they had to invade someone else. To make it clear what sort of war was being waged, over 200 Muslim civilians—mostly of Albanian ethnicity—were deliberately killed by the attacking army after the town was surrendered…
No one had been particularly surprised that Milan chose to declare war on the empire while it was under attack by Russia, or that he had attacked at its narrow weak point. What astonished the world was his decision to march his army clear across the isthmus to the Albanian border… and keep going.
Sultan Vehid[4] was not caught unawares. He knew that in addition to its strategic importance, the province of Kosovo was of great historical significance to the Serbian people—it was the location of the cataclysmic Battle of the Field of Blackbirds in 1389—and half of that province was inside the borders of his sultanate. He had begun mobilizing his army as soon as Serbia invaded Bosnia.
Vehid’s army, larger than Milan’s and as well-equipped, prepared to meet them at Gjakova. The sultan’s plans were upended by events outside his control. The day before the battle, the commanders of Vehid’s cavalry wings, General Basmir Zefi and General Enver Luani, learned that Zefi’s brother had killed a cousin by marriage of the Luani family, alleging that the man had tried to kidnap his daughter. By the unwritten rules of Albanian society—the kanun—their families were now in a state of blood feud and each general was required to make a good-faith effort to assassinate the other.
Accounts differ as to precisely what happened next. Some say that Zefi, while approaching Luani’s tent at night, was killed by Luani’s guards, who mistook Zefi for a Serb assassin rather than an Albanian one. Some say Luani and his men waylaid Zefi and slit his throat. The one common thread is that Zefi was personally the more formidable warrior of the two, but that Luani was more popular with his men and had more of them willing to defend him at need—and that, on the morning of February 12, just as Milan was attacking the Albanian left flank, the commander of that flank was already dead.
The result was a disaster. The Albanians were first forced to retreat, then driven from the field in a rout. Only a series of Parthian shots and counterattacks by General Luani kept Vehid’s army from destruction.
Milan—still a 20-year-old whose life thus far had been an almost uninterrupted series of victories, the most recent of which involved the sort of luck often taken as divine intervention—turned overconfident. Seeing that the Albanian army had rallied on the southwest bank of the Drin, he tried to cross in broad daylight in the face of enemy fire. It was a bloody, costly failure…
As soon as word got out that Albania was involved in the war, cobelligerents Italy and Austria scrambled to outdo each other in assisting that small but strategically vital nation. Italy mobilized ten infantry regiments so quickly that when they arrived at Bari, the ships that were meant to transport them to Durrës would not be there for another week.
Austria, meanwhile, invaded Serbia from the north, along with the former king Milos and his small band of loyalists. Their target was Kragujevac…
Burim Kelmendi, This Time We’ll Get It Right: A History of the Post-Ottoman Balkans and Interventions Therein (Eng. trans.)
March 1, 1838
Whitehall
“How bad is it?” Palmerston didn’t look as though he really wanted an answer.
“Everything west of Westminster Hall is lost. The Exchequer, the Chancery… even the Chancery Library.[5]” Brougham shook his head. “The hall itself stands, but has taken some damage. In the interests of safety, we ought to rebuild it. But that is not what I came to discuss.”
“I dare say not.”
“I hoped for more insight on this Thessalonica matter—what they’re calling the Macedonian Charter. On the surface it seems a positive development, and yet…”
“The French are involved.”
Brougham nodded.
“If nothing else, we now have a better understanding of the background,” said Palmerston. “You will recall that the downfall of the Ottoman Empire began with a rebellion among the Janissaries? A rebellion which was defeated?”
“Yes.”
“The Janissaries’ last stronghold was the White Tower in Thessalonica. When that fell, they were driven into the hills with the rest of the bandits. But when Husein took the Topkapi Palace, they came out of the hills and reclaimed the tower. They did not, however, proclaim their loyalty to Husein.”
“No? Then what did they do?”
“Officially, they continued to serve the rightful Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman Empire… Abdülmecid I, whom the rest of the world knows as Emir of Turkey and vassal of Muhammad Ali of Egypt.”
Brougham’s first thought was to blurt out something like
you must be joking or
what in blazes were they playing at? But there was one lesson he had taken a long time to learn:
When a man takes actions which make no apparent sense, which benefit neither him nor others, he may be doing that which is right in his own eyes. Not everyone was an opportunist, nor was everyone motivated by a desire to achieve Bentham’s greatest good for the greatest number. Perhaps these Janissaries believed what they were saying, that the utter downfall of the Sublime Porte was merely a temporary misfortune. Perhaps, having been the servants (however rebellious) of a dynasty more than four hundred years old, they could not make their knees bend to an upstart like Sultan Husein. Perhaps they simply could not bear the thought that their intransigence had helped to destroy what they were supposed to be defending.
“Of course, they didn’t expect the poor boy to acknowledge this title,” Palmerston was saying. “They knew that if he did, he would soon have an unfortunate accident. They hoped that when he reached full manhood, he would rally Mohametans to his banner, overthrow Cairene rule and reestablish the empire.”
“And what did Husein have to say about all this?”
“Nothing good, but his control over the area was threadbare and the Janissaries held a strong position. Rooting them out would have meant a messy battle in a city that was a key source of revenue. His own governor of Macedonia, Ali Rizvanbegovic[6], was not appointed by him and seems to have had an understanding with the Janissaries—at the very least, he’s taken shelter with them now. However, with manpower running short, the Janissaries have reverted to their old method of recruitment.”
“Kidnapping boys from Christian homes?"
“Indeed. And now that they no longer have the power of the State behind them, the Christians of Macedonia—Greek and Slav alike, as well as the Vlachs[7]—see no reason why they should endure such depredations.”
"I should say not.”
And to think men call me
arrogant.
“Believe me, I understand your disbelief. In any event, they have organized militias to protect themselves. And Sultan Husein is supporting these militias—I suppose because the enemy of his enemy is his friend.”
Brougham nodded. “And even if the Janissaries weren’t his enemy, there can’t be many of them left and it seems they’ve made themselves hated. Which would make them useless as an instrument of his rule. Better to win the loyalty of the people.”
“And in consequence, there is now a Muslim militia—separate from the Janissaries—and a Jewish militia. Jews are not even party to this dispute, but…”
“But that has never protected them before.”
“Which brings us to the mayor of Thessalonica—Mustafa Reshid[8], a former Ottoman official who fled the city when Husein took it, and an enemy of the Janissaries. Last year he called an assembly of the leaders of various communities. The result is this Macedonian Charter, which declares Macedonia a constitutional monarchy under Sultan Husein.
“It’s not quite like the constitutions of, say, France or Spain. It seems to give a role to nations, or ‘millets.’ There are Jewish, Mohametan, and Catholic millets, and two Orthodox Church millets—one which favors Hellenistic Greek as its liturgical language, and one which favors Old Church Slavonic.”
“And… what does Husein have to say about
this?”
“He hasn’t complained, probably because he has too much else to worry about. The important thing is that the Greeks of Macedonia—or at least their chosen representatives—seem more interested in this than in pledging their loyalty to King Paul and Kolokotronis… unlike the banditti on the loose to the south.”
Brougham nodded. Kolokotronis had learned the lesson of Lamia and wasn’t launching any more official invasions, but nothing was stopping his soldiers from “volunteering” to help the “freedom fighters” in Thessaly.
Even if Russia and Serbia are defeated, can Husein hold Thessaly? And how much do we care if he can’t? The Tsar launched this war without a hint of any pretext other than his own aggrandizement and that of Russia. For the sake of peace in Europe, he should gain nothing for his aggression. On principle, the same should be true of Greece and Serbia—but would it be such a terrible blow to good order if this one province changed hands?
[1] Leskovac
[2] Today called Novi Pazar
[3] The translator has rendered
fedayeen as “diehards.”
[4] I know the last time we checked in on Albania, Muhtar was Sultan. Cholera got another victim.
[5] There was an accident a couple of days earlier, while a work crew was installing more telegraph lines in Westminster, and the palace caught fire. It wasn’t as bad as OTL’s 1834 fire—among other things, the House of Lords and the Painted Gallery survived.
[6]
Ali Pasha Rizvanbegović IOTL.
[7] Aromanians
[8]
Mustafa Reşid Pasha IOTL.