Thanks!
Sorry its been so long! Swimming, College apps, and school have taken a load of my time. Hopefully you like the next update!
BTW: that election map isnt supposed to say Sumner/Clay, its meant to say Seward/Clay
The Discord That Follows
- Thread starter SilverSwimmer
- Start date
Thanks!
Sorry its been so long! Swimming, College apps, and school have taken a load of my time. Hopefully you like the next update!
BTW: that election map isnt supposed to say Sumner/Clay, its meant to say Seward/Clay
Life in Monarchist Mexico: 1871-1880
With the war won, Maximilian now had to focus on rebuilding the divided nation. Maximilian envisioned a Mexican nation that rivaled the glory of Europe, and for that, Mexico needed to shed the agrarian way of life. Hopefully this would lift much of the Mexican population over the poverty line, and over time, it would create a rising middle class, much like the United States. Mexico was to industrialize.
To do this, the government heavily sponsored immigration. Even during the war, Europeans had traveled to Mexico. In the Yucatan, Germans had established farming communities which they named Villa Carlota. Thousands of Ex-Confederate soldiers and their families had also already moved down to Mexico, some of which had fought against the Republicans in the recent Civil War. Most now settled in Cordoba, about 100 miles inland from Vera Cruz, and another community was established farther north, in conjunction with some Belgian merchants in Tuxpan. But now, the government was more heavily involved. Over the course of the next decade, almost 80,000 people from France, the German states, Austria, Belgium, and to a lesser extent Spain traveled to Mexico.
The new immigrants from Europe brought over different tools, and innovations that would help Mexico modernize. A new middle class arose, mostly the new European immigrants, but also some native Mexican entrepreneurs who rose to the occasion. They offered new jobs to the population, many to people who hadn’t seen work since the end of the Civil War. These new jobs weren’t ideal, the new factories were dirty and dangerous, and the government, in an effort to be as productive as possible, had not yet passed any sort of reform to help the conditions, but the average Mexican worker did not complain, he was happy with work and a wage.
In the North, where the famed banditos had been at large since the French had left, order was finally being restored. The United States, which had supplied the bandits, were now losing hope of any success. In the days immediately after the conclusion of the war, American supplies were easily smuggled over the border, but now that the chaos had subsided, border guards made it much harder for that to happen, and the risk of inciting an international incident was not worth the effort to help fight a losing battle. The opinion that the United States should cease the support was also helped by the realization that the United States might have more to gain by holding up the new regime than to try and tear it down. Over the 1870’s, American business-owners and industrial giants began to invest heavily in the new infrastructure and industry in Imperial Mexico. By 1880, the rebellious Northwest sizzled out, and the future of a Monarchist Mexico looked bright, for now.
One of the first factories in Mexico
With the war won, Maximilian now had to focus on rebuilding the divided nation. Maximilian envisioned a Mexican nation that rivaled the glory of Europe, and for that, Mexico needed to shed the agrarian way of life. Hopefully this would lift much of the Mexican population over the poverty line, and over time, it would create a rising middle class, much like the United States. Mexico was to industrialize.
To do this, the government heavily sponsored immigration. Even during the war, Europeans had traveled to Mexico. In the Yucatan, Germans had established farming communities which they named Villa Carlota. Thousands of Ex-Confederate soldiers and their families had also already moved down to Mexico, some of which had fought against the Republicans in the recent Civil War. Most now settled in Cordoba, about 100 miles inland from Vera Cruz, and another community was established farther north, in conjunction with some Belgian merchants in Tuxpan. But now, the government was more heavily involved. Over the course of the next decade, almost 80,000 people from France, the German states, Austria, Belgium, and to a lesser extent Spain traveled to Mexico.
The new immigrants from Europe brought over different tools, and innovations that would help Mexico modernize. A new middle class arose, mostly the new European immigrants, but also some native Mexican entrepreneurs who rose to the occasion. They offered new jobs to the population, many to people who hadn’t seen work since the end of the Civil War. These new jobs weren’t ideal, the new factories were dirty and dangerous, and the government, in an effort to be as productive as possible, had not yet passed any sort of reform to help the conditions, but the average Mexican worker did not complain, he was happy with work and a wage.
In the North, where the famed banditos had been at large since the French had left, order was finally being restored. The United States, which had supplied the bandits, were now losing hope of any success. In the days immediately after the conclusion of the war, American supplies were easily smuggled over the border, but now that the chaos had subsided, border guards made it much harder for that to happen, and the risk of inciting an international incident was not worth the effort to help fight a losing battle. The opinion that the United States should cease the support was also helped by the realization that the United States might have more to gain by holding up the new regime than to try and tear it down. Over the 1870’s, American business-owners and industrial giants began to invest heavily in the new infrastructure and industry in Imperial Mexico. By 1880, the rebellious Northwest sizzled out, and the future of a Monarchist Mexico looked bright, for now.
One of the first factories in Mexico
Beautiful!
Not olny does the timeline return but the post features one of my favorite aspects of the timeline.
Emperor Maximilian I seems to be doing well. The industrialization of Mexico should help in the long run to warding off excessive American influence. The new Immigrants also provide a solid support base fopr the Habsburgs along with tthe injection of capital and skilled labor. Where are the dons in this?
The biggest problem at this point I think is that this new middle class is made up so greatly of Europeans and exConfederates. Combined with the rule of a "foriegn prince" this could prevent the regime from gaining legitm,acu in the masses. The Empuire being seen as forign rulers dominating the Mexicans. Also the failure to regulate the industrialists could be a crippling mistake in te future. Both the difficulty of reeling the bosses in when they havbe a history of free reign and the inmeveitable worker's backlash if the Empire fails to act.
Regarding succession is Maximiloian going ahead with his plan to revive the House of Iturbide as the ruling dynasty upon his death?
Not olny does the timeline return but the post features one of my favorite aspects of the timeline.
Emperor Maximilian I seems to be doing well. The industrialization of Mexico should help in the long run to warding off excessive American influence. The new Immigrants also provide a solid support base fopr the Habsburgs along with tthe injection of capital and skilled labor. Where are the dons in this?
The biggest problem at this point I think is that this new middle class is made up so greatly of Europeans and exConfederates. Combined with the rule of a "foriegn prince" this could prevent the regime from gaining legitm,acu in the masses. The Empuire being seen as forign rulers dominating the Mexicans. Also the failure to regulate the industrialists could be a crippling mistake in te future. Both the difficulty of reeling the bosses in when they havbe a history of free reign and the inmeveitable worker's backlash if the Empire fails to act.
Regarding succession is Maximiloian going ahead with his plan to revive the House of Iturbide as the ruling dynasty upon his death?
An Excerpt From:
Heerman, George. Go West, Young Man: The 19th Century American Exodus. New York, NY: Forrester Publishing Co., 1992. Print.
“…After the war ended, the United States government urged many to settle the sparsely populated areas in the west. They offered cheap land, and thousands upon thousands took the offer, and moved them and their families into the west. People from every part of the racial, political, and religious spectrum moved to the West, looking for a place to start new. In the South, this was doubly so, and many of the first settlers in places such as Arizona were former Confederate soldiers and bushwhackers. In the years directly after the Civil War, the West saw a huge influx of people looking for a piece of land and a new start…”
The only problem was that many times there were already people living there. Many Native American tribes called the Great Plains and the American Southwest home, and the new settlers came into conflict with these tribes. The United States government, took the side of the settlers, and in 1870, passed the Indian Appropriations Act, which removed any notion that the United States believed the Indian Nations inside of U.S. territory was independent. The conflict, which soon engulfed the entire Western frontier was named the Indian Wars, and would rage until the mid-1880’s, where most of the Indian Nations were either pacified, or put onto reservations. The Native Americans were extremely upset about the influx of people, the settlers had put a huge amount of pressure on the Indians to move, and they had started to kill of their biggest source of food, the buffalo. Although most tribes were already on reservations, the settlers pushed even further into them, provoking a backlash from the tribes.
The Indian Wars were fought in several theatres against several tribes. In the Plains, the Army and settlers fought against the tribes Sioux, Kiowa, Comanche, and the Cheyenne. In the Southwest, the Apache tribes fought a deadly guerilla campaign. And in the Rocky Mountains the fighting took place against the Shoshone and the Bannock. These wars were fought over resources, and were mercilessly fought with massacres, rape, and brutal murder committed on both sides. When the Army got involved, they allied themselves with the settlers, and fought many tribes into submission.
One such war was the brutal Plains War of 1874, and was almost a direct result of the newly inaugurated President Grant’s Indian policy, and indirectly the discovery of gold in Montana, which forced Indians to resettle, as settlers took more and more land away from them. A group of Plains Indians, led by the chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, began to protest these actions. When the United States government tried to persuade the Sioux to give up the mineral rich Black Hills, the government instead just let prospectors and miners into the territory, sparking conflict with the tribes there. The United States immediately backed the settlers, and began to ready troops for a spring campaign.
The army readied for a spring campaign from Dakota, centered around Ft. Seward. Gen. Terry and his Army included a well-known veteran of the Civil War and commander of the 7th Cavalry, Gen. George Custer. Following him was his brother Lt. Tom Custer, and about 600 other men. From the west of the Black Hills, was Gen. John Gibbon, and from the south in Colorado was Gen. Crook. All were supposed to make a direct attack on the Sioux, and crush them in a decisive battle, forcing them back on reservations. The resulting campaign was successful, and the three armies met up in the Bighorn Mountains on June 24th. The resulting battle, called the Battle of Bighorn River, was an outright victory for the American forces, and broke the back of Sioux. The biggest loss for the American forces that day was the death of Gen. Custer, who led the 7th Cavalry in a rash charge against the underestimated force the Plains Indians had assembled. His brother Tom took control of the situation, which was deteriorating as the Plains Indians had almost surrounded the 7th. He succeeded in fending off the Indians until the rest of the forces under General Terry relieved him after about a half hour. Tom Custer was promoted for his bravery and performance during the battle, despite his brother’s rash action which almost cost the entire 7th Cavalry their lives. After the decisive battle, the campaign entered a skirmish phase, and the leaders of the Plains Indians tried to escape to the Canadian border. Sitting Bull and about 200 followers were the only ones to succeed, and were provided sanctuary by the Canadians, outraging the American government.
A Photo of Chief Sitting Bull Taken in Canada, 1885
In the Southwest, raids and counter-raids had been going on since the end of the Mexican-American War, and during the Civil War, the main tribes, the Navajo and the Apache, fought both Confederate and Union armies. The leader of the Apache was a man by the name of Cochise, who never surrendered, even after the Civil War. Instead, he would raid a town, escape to Mexico, and plan his next raid. In the years after the Civil War during the Confederate resistance, raiding increased ten fold, culminating in one of the bloodiest raids in American history when Tucson, Arizona was raided in April of 1869, killing almost 150 people. At this time, the government had recovered from the Post-Civil war resistance, and mobilized to meet the threat, giving U.S General James Carleton control over the area. He succeeded in forcing the Apaches into an open battle, in Madera Canyon, on October 27th, 1869. Cochise was killed in the battle, and the Apaches surrendered and were forced onto a reservation in New Mexico. A decade later, in 1879, one of Cochise’s soldiers, a man named Geronimo, attempted with about 150 others to leave the reservation, but was stopped by the United States Army about a couple miles from the reservation, where a skirmish broke out and Geronimo was captured and sent to the Indian Territory, where he lived out the rest of his life.
Heerman, George. Go West, Young Man: The 19th Century American Exodus. New York, NY: Forrester Publishing Co., 1992. Print.
“…After the war ended, the United States government urged many to settle the sparsely populated areas in the west. They offered cheap land, and thousands upon thousands took the offer, and moved them and their families into the west. People from every part of the racial, political, and religious spectrum moved to the West, looking for a place to start new. In the South, this was doubly so, and many of the first settlers in places such as Arizona were former Confederate soldiers and bushwhackers. In the years directly after the Civil War, the West saw a huge influx of people looking for a piece of land and a new start…”
The only problem was that many times there were already people living there. Many Native American tribes called the Great Plains and the American Southwest home, and the new settlers came into conflict with these tribes. The United States government, took the side of the settlers, and in 1870, passed the Indian Appropriations Act, which removed any notion that the United States believed the Indian Nations inside of U.S. territory was independent. The conflict, which soon engulfed the entire Western frontier was named the Indian Wars, and would rage until the mid-1880’s, where most of the Indian Nations were either pacified, or put onto reservations. The Native Americans were extremely upset about the influx of people, the settlers had put a huge amount of pressure on the Indians to move, and they had started to kill of their biggest source of food, the buffalo. Although most tribes were already on reservations, the settlers pushed even further into them, provoking a backlash from the tribes.
The Indian Wars were fought in several theatres against several tribes. In the Plains, the Army and settlers fought against the tribes Sioux, Kiowa, Comanche, and the Cheyenne. In the Southwest, the Apache tribes fought a deadly guerilla campaign. And in the Rocky Mountains the fighting took place against the Shoshone and the Bannock. These wars were fought over resources, and were mercilessly fought with massacres, rape, and brutal murder committed on both sides. When the Army got involved, they allied themselves with the settlers, and fought many tribes into submission.
One such war was the brutal Plains War of 1874, and was almost a direct result of the newly inaugurated President Grant’s Indian policy, and indirectly the discovery of gold in Montana, which forced Indians to resettle, as settlers took more and more land away from them. A group of Plains Indians, led by the chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, began to protest these actions. When the United States government tried to persuade the Sioux to give up the mineral rich Black Hills, the government instead just let prospectors and miners into the territory, sparking conflict with the tribes there. The United States immediately backed the settlers, and began to ready troops for a spring campaign.
The army readied for a spring campaign from Dakota, centered around Ft. Seward. Gen. Terry and his Army included a well-known veteran of the Civil War and commander of the 7th Cavalry, Gen. George Custer. Following him was his brother Lt. Tom Custer, and about 600 other men. From the west of the Black Hills, was Gen. John Gibbon, and from the south in Colorado was Gen. Crook. All were supposed to make a direct attack on the Sioux, and crush them in a decisive battle, forcing them back on reservations. The resulting campaign was successful, and the three armies met up in the Bighorn Mountains on June 24th. The resulting battle, called the Battle of Bighorn River, was an outright victory for the American forces, and broke the back of Sioux. The biggest loss for the American forces that day was the death of Gen. Custer, who led the 7th Cavalry in a rash charge against the underestimated force the Plains Indians had assembled. His brother Tom took control of the situation, which was deteriorating as the Plains Indians had almost surrounded the 7th. He succeeded in fending off the Indians until the rest of the forces under General Terry relieved him after about a half hour. Tom Custer was promoted for his bravery and performance during the battle, despite his brother’s rash action which almost cost the entire 7th Cavalry their lives. After the decisive battle, the campaign entered a skirmish phase, and the leaders of the Plains Indians tried to escape to the Canadian border. Sitting Bull and about 200 followers were the only ones to succeed, and were provided sanctuary by the Canadians, outraging the American government.
A Photo of Chief Sitting Bull Taken in Canada, 1885
In the Southwest, raids and counter-raids had been going on since the end of the Mexican-American War, and during the Civil War, the main tribes, the Navajo and the Apache, fought both Confederate and Union armies. The leader of the Apache was a man by the name of Cochise, who never surrendered, even after the Civil War. Instead, he would raid a town, escape to Mexico, and plan his next raid. In the years after the Civil War during the Confederate resistance, raiding increased ten fold, culminating in one of the bloodiest raids in American history when Tucson, Arizona was raided in April of 1869, killing almost 150 people. At this time, the government had recovered from the Post-Civil war resistance, and mobilized to meet the threat, giving U.S General James Carleton control over the area. He succeeded in forcing the Apaches into an open battle, in Madera Canyon, on October 27th, 1869. Cochise was killed in the battle, and the Apaches surrendered and were forced onto a reservation in New Mexico. A decade later, in 1879, one of Cochise’s soldiers, a man named Geronimo, attempted with about 150 others to leave the reservation, but was stopped by the United States Army about a couple miles from the reservation, where a skirmish broke out and Geronimo was captured and sent to the Indian Territory, where he lived out the rest of his life.
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Hmm, I am not knowlwedgable eniough to see all the divergences here. Little Big Horn is a Settler Victiory rather than defeat. I recall that Sitting Bull escaped into Canada but was forced back to the Yankees eventually. Is that different OTL?
The Southwest sounds like it was a shorter but far more intense and bloody conflict. I am guessing many Natives took advantage of the chaos in Northern Mexico were the mini civil war was still going on.
The Bushwacker Rebellions seem to have made the Americans more competent in irregular warfare.
Defibtely m,ake mention of when the POTUS formal;ly recognizes the Empire. Even as a fait accompli iit will be controversial. Essentially it violatyes their Monroe doctrine and the whole republicanism culture by allowing a european prince to rule in "their" hemisphere.
Whay am I the only one showing love for this TL?
The Southwest sounds like it was a shorter but far more intense and bloody conflict. I am guessing many Natives took advantage of the chaos in Northern Mexico were the mini civil war was still going on.
The Bushwacker Rebellions seem to have made the Americans more competent in irregular warfare.
Defibtely m,ake mention of when the POTUS formal;ly recognizes the Empire. Even as a fait accompli iit will be controversial. Essentially it violatyes their Monroe doctrine and the whole republicanism culture by allowing a european prince to rule in "their" hemisphere.
Whay am I the only one showing love for this TL?
Was Sitting Bull forced back into the US OTL? Remember reading he was arrested by the Mounties after doing something but didn't know he was forced back.
Would have expected that the US will be less interested in a few scattered survivors since they won at Little Big Horn so not the loss of face of having suffered a defeat from the 'savages' they were seeking to destroy.
Not an expert on the period/area but definitely the US seems to have been a lot more successful than OTL. Pretty certain that Cochise managed to fight on longer and that Geronimo actually escaped the reservation and fight for quite a while.
Looks like the US has learnt a lot about irregular warfare, or could be simply that the longer war has left them a bit more militant and their throwing more men at it. Probably a bit of both.
Definitely the case so not sure if the US will do it for quite a while.
Probably because other people reading it are being too lazy to contribute.
Definitely some interesting ideas being thrown up.Steve
Sitting Bull was never really "forced" back to america; however his band of followers started to starve and freeze in the Canadian wilderness so he came back. ITL, the Canadians, who are a little more upset with the Americans over the Frenian raids, basically stick it to the Americans by providing them "sanctuary", basically making sure they don't die.
And yes, the Southwest was pretty much more hard-core. And completely correct on the Americans learning from the previous guerilla war.
Good point on the Monroe Doctrine. I honestly hadn't really thought of that one, but I am guessing the US might soon have to suck it up though, given its potential money-making abilities through investment.
Haha, I kinda thought maybe the same thing as stevep.
Sidenote: I know this might be a silly question to some of the veterans of the site, but how is it so you can quote multiple people?
In the lower right corner are two buttons. One is 'Quote' and is obvious. The other is a set of quotation marks, and that's what you use. Go to the n posts you want to quote, hit the " button on each one, then do 'New post' and you get a new post with all the quotes, instead of a blank slate (as usually happens with 'New Post')
It took me a while to figure it out when I was new to the site, too.
The Crash of 73': The First Worldwide Financial Crisis
Since 1866, European and American markets had been creating an ever-expanding bubble. Investment in railroads skyrocketed, especially in the United States, for expansion into the Western territories, and France, which was experiencing a kind of euphoric period in its history. It didn’t help that many nations had also began to move toward the gold standard. By the time of the Crisis, the United States, Prussia, France, and the United Kingdom were all on the gold standard, debasing silver as a viable currency. In December 1873, the bubble finally burst, and the stock exchange in Vienna began to crash. The panic took some months to cross the Ocean, but in the Spring of 1874, the huge bank Jay Cooke & Company, who had just taken a multi-million dollar loan from the government, declared bankruptcy. Americans ran to the banks, and took out as much of their money as they could.The results were instant. Companies went bankrupt, and unemployment in many of the nation's skyrocketed. The hardest hit was the railroad companies. In the United States for example, where railroads accounted for almost 15% of the capital investment, almost 80 of the nation's 400 railroad companies went out of business by 1875.
The Western World was ripe for chaos not seen since 1848.
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France During the Crash
Part 1
The first years of the 1870's in France were almost euphoric. They had been victorious overseas, in Mexico, and preserved the order of Europe by stopping Prussia's rise to power. There was a large rise in infestructure, and railroads connected all parts of Metropolitan France, while steamboats began to rule the French waterways. Paris was even renovated to accomadate the rapid industralization the nation was experiencing. Other large French cities, such as Tours and Nancy soon followed suit. Most of all though, Napolean's effort to create his L'Empire Liberal was satisfying his opponents. By reducing press censorship, and allowing free debates in Parliament, he had shown himself as a true Enlightened Monarch. However, the financial crisis that would soon envelope the Western world would show that there were numerous problems underneath the surface.The effects of the Vienna stock market crash was almost immediate. Within weeks, numerous small French banks began closing. By the first few months of 1874, the railroad boom that had provided the Second Empire with so much business finally ended, as banks could no longer give out the large loans to the rail companies. Thousands lost thier jobs, and some emigrated to the United States or Mexico. The problem snowballed, and soon, almost every sector of the economy was in a loss. The country, which had experienced such rapid economic growth in the last two to three years, was now in dissaray.
To make matters worse, Napolean III was not the healthiest he ever was. In fact, he was never very healthy his entire life, due to smoking, he had experienced bad kidney, respitory, and heart problems since his mid-40's. In 1873, before the crash, he had been suffering from kidney stones, and were treated for them. However, he was still frail, and the added stress caused by the sudden turn of events in France did not help his situation.
Over the course of 1874, many people just tried to weather the storm. But the conditions worsened, and more and more people went hungry. The hardest hit were the former workers and laborers, especially those in the cities. Many of the poor or out of work began to gravitate towards the teachings of Marx, and went to Socialist meetings. The leader of this movement emerged in Louis Auguste Blanqui, who called for a re-distribution of wealth. If it did not occur, he warned, revolution would be inevitable. In December of 1874, Blanqui traveled to Paris. Louis' first speech gathered thousands upon thousands of people, from people who had been lifelong socialists to some that had just began reading Marx. Over the next few weeks, there were numerous protests, gatherings, and Socialist marches. The men and women associated with the movement in Paris adopted the blood-red flag as their symbol, waving it proudly as they marched down the Champs-Elysees. Although many in the government were worried about them, they had not yet done anything destructive, nor was Napoleon III in any real position to check their growing power. In truth, he would not be on the throne for much longer.
Louis Auguste Blanqui
On April 14th, 1875, Napoleon III died of kidney failure. His son, Louis, the Prince Imperial, was crowned Napoleon IV. When Blanqui heard the news however, he held a rally, in which he ended his speech in "The Emperor is dead, Long live the Republic!" Although his words garnered huge cheers, they also made many others wary, most of all Napoleon IV. The next week, on April 19th, Napoleon decided to arrest Louis-Auguste. Police arrived at his residence that night, but when they tried to arrest Blanqui, followers who were there with him rose up and fought the officers. A shot broke out, possibly during the struggle, and killed one of the police officers. The police officers retreated, and shouts of "They have arrested Blanqui!" and "The Republic lives!" swelled through the night. That morning, riots broke out all around the city. Many of the National Guard, who had received orders to stop the looting, joined with the revolters. By the 21st of April, order in Paris was all but gone.
A French Revolution?! Who would have guessed?
Seriously though, I do not see this revolt carrying the day. Napoleon III is seen as a great ruler who brought France glory and so the majority will not want to back up this radical revolt. More importantly the army is likely to remain loyal so we will have Napoleon IV for a few more years at least.
However, I think the Bonapartist victory may see an end of the LIberal Empire with Napoleon III uing the dissent to retake the powers his father gave up. So this will be far from the last clash between French Emperor and the communists.
Paris may be in revolt but Paris is not France, it will come down to who can rally the cities and countryside.
EDIT:
This crisis either way could lead to an Italian conquest of the Papal Remnant around Rome.
Seriously though, I do not see this revolt carrying the day. Napoleon III is seen as a great ruler who brought France glory and so the majority will not want to back up this radical revolt. More importantly the army is likely to remain loyal so we will have Napoleon IV for a few more years at least.
However, I think the Bonapartist victory may see an end of the LIberal Empire with Napoleon III uing the dissent to retake the powers his father gave up. So this will be far from the last clash between French Emperor and the communists.
Paris may be in revolt but Paris is not France, it will come down to who can rally the cities and countryside.
EDIT:
This crisis either way could lead to an Italian conquest of the Papal Remnant around Rome.
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France During the Crash
Part 2
Paris was in chaos. The attempted arrest of Louis-Auguste Blanqui had set off the ticking time-bomb of social tension, which was now running rampant through the streets. The police could do nothing but escape the city, and most of the Parisian National Guard had joined the revolters. Looting was excessive, and anarchy was the feeling of the day. But the most important question on Paris's mind however was, "Where is Blanqui?"
He was organizing. On April 22nd, he appeared with a large group of followers at the Place de la Bastille, all touting Red flags and red armbands. As people noticed the scene, they stopped, and looked toward him, as he climbed on to the monument that commemorated the storming of the prison almost nine decades before. As people stared at him looking across the open square, he began to speak. And the Parisians gathered and listened.
"Parisians, you stand now on the birthplace of the French Republic. Generations ago, our great-grandfathers and mothers stood here to bring liberty, equality, and fraternity to the French people. They bravely stormed this embodiment of oppression, the old regime of Kings and Queens. And now, the regime of old, the regime of the Grand Napoleons, holds the people hostage. They hold us, and our potential as a society in chains.
But no more! The city of Paris has removed the chains. We have thrown off the bonds of the oppressors on all sides. The worker of Paris is freed from his boss's shackles. The thinker freed from his government's injustice....
...My comrades, how hard did you work for your wage? For your Boss?
And how much did it matter? Did he save you from The Crash?
NO! He let you slide into poverty, let your family slide into hunger and disease.
And, my comrades, what did your government do? Did they feed you? No. They did not. They stood there, behind the money and gold that they had made from the sweat and blood of the worker's hands.
Enough is enough my brothers! The time to finally come to join our ancestors and embrace our potential as a society of equals. Throw off the chains, and join me in Revolution! Long live the Worker! Long live the Republic!"
It was shorter than most of his speeches. But it was effective. The moment his speech ended, the eruption from the crowd, which by this point swelled to almost 10,000 people, roared with approval, and a chorus of "La Marseillaise[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]"[/FONT] moved through the square. In only a few minutes, Blanqui had brought Paris under his control.
Meanwhile, Napoleon IV had moved to Versailles to escape the violence that had engulfed his beloved capitol. He was deeply worried about Paris, seeing that onl days after his being crowned, the largest and grandest city in his Empire had revolted against him. He was determined that it would be the last, and ordered the army under General MacMahon, who had been encamped at Versailles for the last few days, was told to move to a town called Sevres, which was about halfway between Versailles and Paris. In Paris itself, order had been restored, and the National Guard units who revolted with the Socialists were now organizing into a real military force. Barricades began to be put up on many of the major avenues in Paris, and thousands of eager workers joined the Guards ranks. However, Blanqui, now the supreme authority in Paris, was not interested in defensive action. Versailles, he thought, needed to be taken if the revolution was to be taken seriously.
The Socialist military meetings ended with an offensive plan to finally spread the revolution to all of Metropolitan France. Reports had been coming in from sympathizers that the Army of Versailles was camped in Sevres, near a vital bridge over the Seine. Just to the north of Sevres was St. Cloud, another small suburb which stood near another bridge of importance. The Socialist offensive consisted of a flanking maneuver, advancing over the bridge at St. Cloud and attacking the Army of Versailles from the left, while a smaller force engaged them from the front. Hopefully this would succeed in surprising them and routing them all the way back to Versailles.
The Socialist Army marches toward Sevres; May 5th, 1875
On May 5st, the Socialist force, of about 50,000 men, almost half being workers who had little to no experience with a firearm, marched toward the St. Cloud bridge under the command of Jarosław Dąbrowski, an immigrant from Poland who had been caught up in the revolutionary fervor. [FONT=verdana, sans-serif]The next day, on the 6th, shelling began from the Socialist force directly in front of the Army of Versailles, succeeding in capturing their attention. The back and forth shelling brought minor casualties on both sides, but it was a wake up call. Neither party was backing down. At about 4 P.M. on the 6th, the Socialist main force made itself known, as some rearguard Loyalist forces who were positioned on the road from St. Cloud. They quickly notified the main Loyalist force, who swung their attention to the left, where some 50,000 Socialists were beginning to lay down a field of fire. With the shelling from the front, and now the main attack from the left, the Loyalist force was under heavy pressure, but still stood fast, as hundreds of the green Socialist recruits threw themselves against a well-trained Loyalist army. As night fell, both sides began digging in for a hard fight.[/FONT]
Over night, both armies had begun to dig trenches, and by the morning of May 7th, the fields outside Sevres were cut into and pockmarked with craters. At noon, MacMahon gave the order to the Loyalist troops to attack, and at 12:30 artillery began to come down on both sides. The Loyalist attack was fierce, but the Socialists did not give in, and the charge on the Socialist's trenches became a bloody affair. Most of the Loyalist attackers were killed in the actual charge, and the few who made it to the Socialist lines were then forced into hand-to-hand combat. With his attack in shambles, and his force thinned by the assault, MacMahon contacted Versailles requesting more troops, and stated that a retreat was needed to save the battered army from destruction in case of another Socialist attack on Sevres. What he did not know was that the Socialist side was in no condition for any more attacks, in fact, Dąbrowski was also contacting the city for more troops, which arrived the next day. By the time they arrived, the Loyalist army had retreated to the outskirts of Versailles. The battle cost almost 15,000 French men thier lives, and gave the world a taste of a new, horrific type of warfare.
Napoleon IV, from Versailles, was now in a panic. The Parisian Socialists had succeeded in embarressing his army, and threatening his power, and probably his life, by advancing in Versailles' direction. By now all of France had heard of the news, and headlines of "Blanquis' Republic Victorious outside Paris" and "Communards Rout Emporor's Forces", were being screamed from Brest to Marseilles. In Tours, Socialist sympathizers had attempted a riot, but were quickly put down by both the citizens and police, while in Lyon, a railroad strike had turned very violent, with the strikers overtaking police and setting fire to much of the rail yards. The Parisian problem needed to be solved.
The Socialist's, now reinforced, advanced along the main road toward Versailles. The goal was clear. If a victory could be gained at Versailles, the hope was that Blanqui's government in Paris could garner enough support to overthrow Napoleon, or atleast that was what they thought. In fact, although France's situation looked dire indeed, the Emporor was still held in high esteem among most of the French people, or atleast his father was. In many of the other cities that experienced violence during this period, most were put down not by just the authorities, but by other citizens as well. Parisian Socialists may well have succeeded because of the leadership of Blanqui, and the firestorm around his unfair arrest.
However, these thoughts did not change the fact that Versailles and the Bonapartist regime were in a panic, and the fact that Socialist forces, by the 10th of May, were positioned in Chaville, less than 3 kilometers outside of Versailles. Loyalist forces soon were on the move, setting up thier own defensive positions west of the town, waiting for the inevitable attack on thier positions. It came on the 12th, at dawn, with sunlight arriving at the same time the first shells did. Although a bit drowsy, the Loyalist's were not taken by surprise like at Sevres, and held thier positions wave after wave. By the afternoon, the Socialist forces had exhausted themselves, and halted the deadly frontal assault. The next day, the Socialist army attempted a flanking maneuvre around right flank of the Loyalist's, and it was here that MacMahon demenstrated his experience, as he waited for the maneuvre to be in full swing, and as the Socialist's floundered, ordered a full frontal assault on the Socialist's lines, breaking through the lines, and sweeping through the Socialist ranks like butter. With the the morale crushed, Dąbrowski ordered a full retreat, which quickly turned into a rout toward Paris. As Napoleon looked over the ensuing rout, he told his staff, "Had I not realized these men were all French I would be dancing instead of crying."
French Loyalist Positions at Chaville; May 11th, 1875
Back in Paris, the Blanquist government were preparing for the full might of the Loyalist army. They were disheartened by the defeat at the gates of Versailles, and even more demoralized as the walking wounded trudged back through the gates. At once, many of them began to help with the barricades, and take thier positions for the coming onslaught. MacMahon moved his force back to Sevres, and some other abandoned forts on the outskirts of Southwestern Paris, and began shelling the city. The last thought on his mind was to assault the city, that was a nightmare scenario for him. But for political reasons, MacMahon's nightmare scenario had to come true. His situation was helped somewhat by new reinforcements which had begun arriving from other areas of France, as they had been delayed almost a week and a half by railroad strikes and riots throughout the country.
French Socialist Barricade in Paris
The assault began on the 16th of May, along the southern banks of the Seine. Immediately they came under heavy fire from the many barricades set up around France, but the army still advanced, outflanking the barricades by going through buildings and attacking the barricades from the rear. Ironically, it was the open spaces of the avenues that Napoleon's father had built for Paris that really took thier toll on the Loyalist army. By the 20th, MacMahon's army were in control of Southern Paris, and had succeded in crossing the Seine and capturing Île de la Cité. On May 26th, Blanqui, who saw the writing on the wall, attempted to escape the city, but was caught and shot on site by pursuing Loyalist soldiers. That same day, the rest of Blanqui's government surrendered. The short-lived Parisian Worker's Republic came to an end, and forever after the events that took place over the previous month were known as "Bloody May", as more than 100,000 men and women were either killed or wounded in combat or the reprisals afterward. In addition, many were exiled from France, and many emigrated to other nations to escape persecution. Socialism was not dead in France, but it was very dangerous to say so.
So it would appear.
Well mastters have proceeded more or less as I predicted. A bit ssurprised at the Revolutionary victory at Sevres, credit I suppose goes to the National Guardsmen deserters and the defensive advantage. Either way Napoleon IV has secured his throne and the People's Republic is as ead as the PAris commune. The victory at Sevres may hurt the martyrdom of te movement since they had an agressive record. Still it will be another rallying cry for future revolutionaries.
The real question is how Napoleon IV uses his victory. If he treats this as a problem to be relieved he will stay his father's course and continue to court the favor of moderates keeping them from radicals. But if he decides the Liberal Empire policis are the problem and tries to scure te throne by taking more power asnd hardline stances . . . in that case it is only a question of time until the next revolt.
Speech was typical revolutionary jingo. Annoying talk about potential of society; the society of equals bit was especially amusing, Repoublics are just as much about Hieracvhy as any monarchy. Putting the words "people" in front of your country is meaningless.
Anyway Either next piece you will be dealing with the aftermath or moving on to covering other countries.
Italy is a point of interest. They will likely be hit hard. Seizing Rome would be an effective way for the King to get the people behind him. But While the Second Empire is reeling at the moment would the King risk PAris' enemity when Vienna is already a problem?
Britain as always will ride out the crisis well enough. No real question there.
Austria-HUgary, the Habsburg realm is the origin of the problem, I wonder how it is faring?
The German Kingdom's will be interesting. We have Greater Prussia looming with her allies. Will this crisis draw them closer to gether or further apart. The South German Kingdoms remain independent, but will this cause the to gravitate towards Vienna or Berlin. If King Ludwig II is still ruling Bvaria he will be proAustrian as ever. Or perhaps these Kingdoms will be a third faction supporting each other?
Top notch as ever.
I especially liked the Emperor's line on the Battle of Versailles.
Well mastters have proceeded more or less as I predicted. A bit ssurprised at the Revolutionary victory at Sevres, credit I suppose goes to the National Guardsmen deserters and the defensive advantage. Either way Napoleon IV has secured his throne and the People's Republic is as ead as the PAris commune. The victory at Sevres may hurt the martyrdom of te movement since they had an agressive record. Still it will be another rallying cry for future revolutionaries.
The real question is how Napoleon IV uses his victory. If he treats this as a problem to be relieved he will stay his father's course and continue to court the favor of moderates keeping them from radicals. But if he decides the Liberal Empire policis are the problem and tries to scure te throne by taking more power asnd hardline stances . . . in that case it is only a question of time until the next revolt.
Speech was typical revolutionary jingo. Annoying talk about potential of society; the society of equals bit was especially amusing, Repoublics are just as much about Hieracvhy as any monarchy. Putting the words "people" in front of your country is meaningless.
Anyway Either next piece you will be dealing with the aftermath or moving on to covering other countries.
Italy is a point of interest. They will likely be hit hard. Seizing Rome would be an effective way for the King to get the people behind him. But While the Second Empire is reeling at the moment would the King risk PAris' enemity when Vienna is already a problem?
Britain as always will ride out the crisis well enough. No real question there.
Austria-HUgary, the Habsburg realm is the origin of the problem, I wonder how it is faring?
The German Kingdom's will be interesting. We have Greater Prussia looming with her allies. Will this crisis draw them closer to gether or further apart. The South German Kingdoms remain independent, but will this cause the to gravitate towards Vienna or Berlin. If King Ludwig II is still ruling Bvaria he will be proAustrian as ever. Or perhaps these Kingdoms will be a third faction supporting each other?
Top notch as ever.
I especially liked the Emperor's line on the Battle of Versailles.
This has been such a good timeline. I like how the updates are short and easy to keep up with. Makes for a simple yet intricate read all at the same time. Your battle scenes have me captured and your writing ability exceeds many I've noticed.
Well done!
Well done
!Yes, I would safely say the Emperor has won this time, but Socialism isnt gone, and it wont be for a long time. I am also not so sure the young Napoleon is experienced enough to realize he must keep his fathers trend alive if he wishes to avert 1875's events.
Italy, Austria, and the German states are also an interesting point, and the decisions the leaders make in the next few years should signifigantly alter the course of diplomatic history for the next few decades.
And thank you for the quote compliment, I wanted to capture the pessimism of the events unfolding there. I was proud of it.
This has been such a good timeline. I like how the updates are short and easy to keep up with. Makes for a simple yet intricate read all at the same time. Your battle scenes have me captured and your writing ability exceeds many I've noticed.
Well done
Thanks so much! All those high school english/writing classes are good for something I see
The United States During The Crash
Part 1: The Election of 1873 and the Great Riot of 75'
The era of Seward was soon coming to an end. After a term that included one of the most turbulent times in American history, the Republican party was looking for a new candidate to carry the party. The most interesting story though could have been the recovering Democratic party, which had returned to power in the South. Since the withdrawal of Federal troops from states formally in rebellion, the Democratic party had been elected in full force, and by 1873, they were ready to finally contend for the Presidency once more.
On the Republican side, the nominees were countless. Anyone with some kind of notability put thier name in, hoping that they would be the one to replace William Seward, and knowing that the Republicans were almost a shoe-in for the election. The front-runners included Seward's Vice-President Cassius Clay, and Charles Adams, the son of former President John Quincy Adams. These two candidates were picked as the favorites from very early on, but in the Spring of 1873, Ullyses S. Grant, the General who had in many minds won the Civil War, announced his decision to run for President. It was the beginning of the end for anyone trying to vie for the Republican nomination. By the time the Republican National Convention was held, the decision was almost unnanimous. Ullyses S. Grant was to run as a Republican for President of the United States.
For the Democrats, an immediate frontrunner was found in George H. Pendleton from Ohio. He had run with George McClellan in 1864 against Abe Lincoln, and had won his Senate seat as a Democrat in Ohio in 1869, during a time where Democrats were almost literally thrown out on the streets in much of the North. His nomination was secured almost immediately, with no other real nominees posing a threat. However, when it was found out that General Grant had also secured his nomination, the Democratic Party tried to find a running mate that could check Grant's military status, and so Winfield Scott Hancock was chosen as the Vice-Presidential nominee.
As much as the Democratic Party tried to check Grant's status however, they failed miserably. As a Pennsylvanian newspaper stated, "Not since Jackson has a candidate had such popularity and resources." In addition, the Republicans ran a campaign of painting the Democrats as the party of "bloodshed and treason", which worked quite well in much of the North. The process would later be known as "waving the bloody shirt." And the process would be successful. In November, the Republicans were victorious.
Election of 1873
Grant/Adams
Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Ohio
Delaware
West Virginia
Maryland
Indiana
Illinois
Michigan
Iowa
Kansas
Nebraska
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nevada
Oregon
California
Pendleton/Hancock
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Florida
Tennessee
Kentucky
Missouri
Louisiana
Alabama
Mississippi
Texas
Arkansas
The landslide victory Grant had achieved was met with excitement by many, but just as Ullyses S. Grant took the Oath of Office, the ripple of the Vienna Stock Market crash finally crossed the Atlantic, causing banks across the United States to fail. One of the first actions taken by Grant's Administration was to bail out Jay & Cooke Company, a huge bank that invested in many railroad projects across the United States and had control over many of the United States' Civil War loans. However, only a month later, the bank filed for bankruptcy, shocking the nation. The ensuing run on the banks started a snowball effect, and within weeks other enterprises began closing and laying off workers.
It was not even a year into President Grant's first terms, and already the country was in Depression. Unemployment by 1875 was a whopping 13%, with even more companies going out of business as the months went on. Many called for Grant to try and persuade Congress to repeal the Coinage Act that had been passed the year and had placed the United States on the "de-facto" gold standard, but Grant refused. So through the year of 1875, the nation still were in the grips of depression.
In October of 1875, the Northern Pacific Railroad, who had been backed by Jay & Cooke, cut wages for many employees. That same month, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad did the same, enraging workers who had been experiencing more and more cuts throughout the year, causing them to protest that they could not get by on such a little wage. However the companies did not act. On October 27th, workers from the Northern Pacific Railroad began a strike in St. Paul, Minnesota. What began as peaceful soon turned ugly, and tension rose between the strikers and the police. By October 29th, the strike had turned into a riot, with police finally resorting to firing rounds into the crowd, killing seven. By the time news had even hit the streets about the strike, not even the fact it had turned violent, many others sites along the Northern Pacific and Baltimore and Ohio railroad began striking. On October 31st, the Mid-West was at a standstill, with cities such as Tacoma, St. Paul, Chicago, Columbus, and Cincinnati all experiencing strikes and an almost complete shutdown of locomotive transportation.
On November 2nd, the Governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, decided to send in state troops and end the strike, but it did not help the situation. When the troops came in contact with the strikers, violence immediately broke out. In Columbus and Cincinnati, the strikers set fire to the rail yards, and battled state troops at night under the glow of the flames. In Cincinnati, the flames from the rail yards spread to the rest of the city. Over the next two days, the ensuing flames engulfed much of the downtown area, as many of the strikers and authorities quickly put the conflict aside and attempted to quell the inferno. On November 4th, the same day the flames were finally put down, President Grant finally sent federal troops to quell the riots that had spread to much of the Mid-West. By November 7th, the riots had ceased, but not without causing more than 10 million dollars in damage, and killing over 1000 people, the "Great Cincinnati Fire" included.
The Aftermath of the "Great Cincinnati Fire of 1875"
I've enjoyed the last couple of updates SS. Will later politicians and historians in TTL hang this depression like a millstone around Grant's neck? Also, as sparks from OTL's Great Chicago Fire ignited significant blazes here in Michigan, I would imagine that the destruction caused by TTL's Great Cincinnati Fire would reach far into eastern Ohio and Kentucky (Even NW West Virginia perhaps), depending on the weather, air temps & where the winds blow the sparks.
A Storm Across the Balkans
The Russo-Turkish War of 1875
The Russo-Turkish War of 1875
As the Western World struggled to retain order in the face of The Crash of 1873, in Eastern Europe, the bear that was Russia looked hungrily at the aging Ottoman Empire. At the middle of this generations old conflict was the Balkans. Many of the people living under the Ottomans, especially in the Balkans, were Christian Orthodox, and felt that their rulers treated them unfairly because of the difference in religion. And to some extent, it was true, as non-Muslims were taxed heavier in the Empire, much to the dismay of the Balkan Christians. So it came as no surprise when, in late 1874, violence broke out in Herzegovina against the Ottoman rulers, inciting unrest among the Ottomans other Balkan holdings. The powder keg really exploded when in January 1875, the principality of Bulgaria experienced an outbreak of ethnic violence killing thousands of people. When the Ottoman Army attempted to quell the insurrection, the Bulgarians rose en masse against them.
At first, the Ottoman troops crushed any sense of uprising in the territory. This earned the Turks condemnation from nations around the world, and the uprising seemed to be gaining momentum. This was the beginning of a domino effect, as a month later, Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire, because of border disputes and in order to take advantage of the Slavic uprisings.
The resulting Serbian campaign was under-equipped, under-staffed, and really not very planned out. Throwing men into Turkish held territory, they drew confidence that they would be greeted as liberators in the territories they conquered. Although sometimes this was the case, like in Herzegovina, where thousands of volunteers helped liberate their lands; in other more important areas, the Serbians were defeated. Although Russian volunteers had been streaming across Eastern Europe to help the Serbs, too many losses had thrown the army out of Bulgaria and Bosnia. The war was not over however, and in March of 1875, the Serbians were fighting a highly effective defensive war, while Montenegro fought successfully in Herzegovina.
On April 3rd, Russia delivered an ultimatum to the Turks, after the Ottomans had broken through the Serbs defensive lines along the border stating that unless the Ottoman army left Serbia within the week, Russia would have no choice but to declare war. The Russian ultimatum was backed up by a semi-mobilization of the Russian Army, and troop movements along the shared borders. The Ottomans, who believed that the other powers wouldn't stand for a Russian hegemony over the Balkans, refused to withdraw, and on April 10th, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Immediately, the Ottomans looked to the other powers for assistance, but the other nations were either too occupied with their own internal conflicts, or they actually supported Russia in that they too wished to see more freedoms for Christians and non-Muslims in the Empire. In the case of Austria-Hungary, a nation who had huge conflicting interest in the Balkans with Russia, had a few days before accepted a back room deal with Russia, agreeing to stay out of the conflict in exchange for administering Bosnia. Austria would send troops to Bosnia within the month, encountering a few Ottoman troops and quickly defeating them.
In the Balkans, secret negotiations were going underway between Russian and Romanian delegates about the possibility of moving Russian troops through Romanian territory. This was a very difficult decision for the Romanians, as they were technically under Ottoman control, and that sort of deal would be a declaration of independence, something that would not be taken lightly by the Ottomans. In the meantime, the war had started in ernest on the Russo-Turkish frontier in the Caucasus, as a 90,000 strong Russian army took to the offensive, with the goals being the cities of Kars and Batum, both ofwhich were reached by the Russians by May. However, the Russian army could not force them out, making the Russians commit to two large, costly sieges of the cities starting that month.
The Serbians, Montenegrins and Herzegovinians, although somewhat angry that Russia had leased away Bosnia, were also very relieved in the decrease in Ottoman troops, many of them being withdrawn to fight the Russians, and now had a fighting chance against the Turks. At the battle of Plevlje, A joint Serbian-Montenegrin army routed the Ottoman forces there on May 2nd, and on May 20th successfully defended Novibazar from an Ottoman counter-attack.
On May 15th, after almost a month of negotiations, the Romanian parliament agreed to allow Russian troops into the country. However, the next day, Parliament also declared independence for Romania. Russian troops, about 300,000 of them, streamed into Romania. On May 22nd, the Russians began a huge offensive, crossing the Danube at three main points, Silistra, Ruse, and Nikopol. At first, Russian troops took heavy fire, and barely made it off the beachheads. But finally, the outnumbered Turks retreated back to more fortified positions throughout Bulgaria, leaving the initiative to Russia. The Russian forces, knowing that many Ottoman forces were held up fighting Serbia, concentrated their focus on cutting a large Ottoman contingent of about 75,000 troops on the Black Sea coast, from Constanta to Varna. The resulting victory at Razgrad cemented the fate of the Ottomans, and soon, Varna itself was being bombarded by the Russian Army.
Russian forces moving into Romania
The Russian offensive met most of its objectives by July, with Varna finally submitting to the bear on July 6th. But what the Russians had underestimated was how effective the Serbian war effort was on the Ottoman army. Although the Ottomans were having trouble, the army now facing the Russian left flank near the Iskar river numbered almost 110,000, more than enough to overpower the skeleton-thin force defending the Russian lines. On July 14th, the Ottoman offensive took the Russian High Command completely off guard, smashing into the lines over the Iskar river, at the towns of Gorni Dabnik, and Telish, a little south of Pleven. Both were complete Ottoman victories, throwing the Russian forces back past Pleven. Russian reinforcements coming back from the victories further east rode past the dirty, pale faces of the routed Russians, only to themselves be thrust into a storm of fire and bloodshed. The Ottoman goal was to sweep through the lines, and then upward back toward the Danube, hopefully crushing a large part of the invading force. But it never came to pass. The reinforcements coming back from Varna finally slowed the advance, and began it back once more, finally culminating in the climactic 2nd battle of Pleven on August 9th. The battle exhausted both sides, but it was a strategic Russian victory. The Ottoman ability to go on the offensive in the Balkans was over.
In the Caucuses, the Russians were beginning to make headway, starting with the surrender of Batum on August 22nd. The surrendering force was a morale loss to many Ottoman troops on the front, especially in Kars, the other city under Russian guns, as it made it clear help was not on the way, unless their version of help was another large Russian army. On September 17th, Kars also surrendered, clearing the road to Erzurum. The two armies, now freed from such long costly sieges, were now converging on that city, with the last remnants of the Ottoman Caucuses force struggling to put up any kind of resistance they could as they retreated toward Erzurum.
The Ottomans Army in the Balkans was now in disarray. Serbian and Montenegrin forces, aided by Herzegovinian volunteers, were advancing towards Bulgaria, and now, Russian troops were attacking once more, in the hope that maybe this attack would be the straw that broke the camels' back. The southern advance was toward the Maritsa river, the river on which Plovdiv and Edirne, two of the main objectives, were situated on. A third, smaller Russian force, marched West, to link up with Serbian forces. On September 20th, the Russian forces attempting the link-up were halted at Sofia, where Ottoman troops put up a stubborn fight in many of the cities outlying fortresses. The two larger forces heading south however, swept past Ottoman defenses, capturing Plovdiv on October 1st. Edirne was not so easily taken however, and the Russian Army attempting to take it was finally thrown out, where they set up fortifications outside the city. Edirne was very important to the Ottomans, it sat on the intersection of the Maritsa and the Tundzha rivers, and if taken, the road to Istanbul would literally be wide open, as their was a major road connecting the two cities. Wave after wave of Russian troops attempted to break the Ottoman grip on the town, but to no avail. Finally, under the cover of darkness on the frigid night of November 3rd, almost three weeks after the initial struggle, the Russian Army, instead of attacking once again, simply bypassed the city altogether, crossing the river south of Edirne, and continuing their march to Istanbul. The next morning, when the Ottomans awoke, they believed the Russians had retreated and rejoiced, until a messenger brought them the news that the Russians had passed them. Back near Sofia, the Ottomans had hunkered down for what seemed to be the millionth siege some of the troops had experienced. The Russian and Serbian Army still had not hooked up yet, but both were shelling the ancient city from opposite directions. The two armies, although only a few miles apart, would never meet during the war.
By this time, Istanbul was in a panic. In the Caucasus, the Russians were advancing towards Erzurum. In the Balkans, the Russians were shelling Sofia, and now seriously threatening the capitol itself. And no nation in Europe would come to its aid. Finally on November 13th, 1875, the Ottoman Empire sued for peace, just as the first few Russian artillery pieces were setting up for the bombardment of the city. A cease-fire was immediately put into affect, and delegates from all the nations involved and observers from the other Powers, such as Great Britain, France, Prussia, and Austria, met at the Montenegrin city of Podgorica. The resulting treaty provided great gains for Russia and its Balkan allies, except for one thing; control of the straits. When the Russians demanded it during the negotiations, Great Britain stepped in, finally forcing Russia to step down on its request. Even though the Russians did not get control of the straits, it did succeed in becoming the dominant power in the Balkans by helping Romania and Bulgaria become independent Slavic states and expanding Serbia south into Kosovo and Sanjak. The treaty also created the new state of Montenegro-Herzegovina, merging the two factions into one nation under one crown, and gave Russia land in the Caucuses, expanding its territory into the region around Kars. The treaty was signed on December 29th, 1875.