The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline
- Thread starter Augenis
- Start date
The Emperor is still around and Lithuania is officially an empire, but yes, the shogunate is what I was thinking when I thought up of the Hetmanate.
Ah, I get it now.
Will France try to intervene diplomatically to weaken German unity ? In my opinion they want to avoid having a united Germany too strong in their borders and due to the religious problems they may very well try to provoke confrontations between the different countries of the HRE
how are relation between england and other countries of Britannia like Irland and Scotland? By example France and Scotland were important trading partners. By examlpe , in 1620(otl), the Scottish port of Leith imports a million liters of claret(french wine), that is a liter per capita so I don't see them accepting with enthusiasm the country's isolationism
That's what France is trying to do, at least the more conservative politicians within their government. This being the Red Party.
The relations between the central government in London and the Irish, Welsh and Scottish is simple, really - squashing any revolts and any traces of heresy and "degeneracy" (which is basically anything that the Puritans disagree with), enforcing the absolute rule of the King, and widespread assimilation through enforced English language, encouraged English-Celtic intermarriage and pro-English bias in courts and administration. Though, the situation for the people there is slightly better than what it was after the English Civil War, mostly because the Puritan vigor has been slowing down and turning into simple religious conservatism.
Scotland and France used to be trade partners, yes, but over a century of isolationism has severed those ties by now.
I just want to add that I revised my opinion in your poll: I'm now in the "amazing" camp. Your TL has turned from a rather straightforward Lithuanian wank into something more complex - Lithuania DOES lose some times, does have some disadvantages compared to its ennemies, etc. That's rather refreshing compared to other wanks of the same kind. Also, your history of the world is believable and interestingly different from OTL. Keep up the good work 
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Thank you! I suppose it's far more satisfying to me to write a realistic story rather than an overly wanked one. (Maybe that's why I stopped writing my other TL...)I just want to add that I revised my opinion in your poll: I'm now in the "amazing" camp. Your TL has turned from a rather straightforward Lithuanian wank into something more complex - Lithuania DOES lose some times, do have some disadvantages compared to its ennemies, etc. That's rather refreshing compared to other wanks of the same kind. Also, your history of the world is believable and interestingly different from OTL. Keep up the good work
Populations in 1750
This is a quick bonus chapter that I decided to just get out of the way now.
Special Chapter
Countries by Population in 1750
EUROPE - 120 000 000
Ottoman Empire: 32 000 000
- Anatolia: 8 500 000
- Balkan Territories: 4 000 000
- Egypt: 3 500 000
- Ottoman Persia: 5 000 000
- (and others)
Republic of France: 25 000 000
Empire of Lithuania: 18 300 000
- Lithuania Propria (including Prussia, Livonia and Estonia): 3 000 000
- Russia: 8 500 000
- Ruthenia: 6 000 000
- Circassia: 450 000
- Crimea: 350 000
Kingdom of Britannia: 12 500 000
- England: 7 450 000
- Ireland: 3 050 000
- Scotland: 2 000 000
Holy Roman Empire: 12 200 000
- Austria: 1 700 000
- Bavaria: 1 500 000
- Wurttemberg: 1 000 000
- Swiss Cantons: 850 000
- Saxony: 750 000
Kingdom of Spain: 8 500 000
Kingdom of the Union of Three Crowns (Visegrad): 8 600 000
- Kingdom of Poland: 3 500 000
- Kingdom of Hungary: 3 000 000
- Kingdom of Bohemia: 2 100 000
North German Communion: 5 500 000
Kingdom of Naples: 4 000 000
Russian State (Volga Russia): 4 000 000
Free State of the Netherlands: 2 400 000
Papal State: 2 000 000
Kingdom of Portugal: 1 850 000
Most Serene Republic of Venice: 1 750 000
Grand Duchy of Savoy: 1 700 000
Kingdom of Sweden: 1 500 000
Grand Duchy of Tuscany: 1 000 000
Denmark: 800 000
Principality of Moldavia: 250 000
VESPUCIA (NORTH AND SOUTH) - 45 000 000
Inca Empire: 20 000 000
Empire of Mejico: 3 500 000
Portuguese Manuela: 2 000 000
Spanish New World: 1 950 000
- Luisiana: 650 000
- New Granada (Central Vespucia): 500 000
- Spanish Caribbean: 800 000
New Netherland: 1 800 000
New France: 850 000
New Sweden: 200 000
Virginia (British): 150 000
ASIA - 495 000 000
Shun Dynasty: 250 000 000
Mughal Empire: 160 000 000
Toyotami Shogunate: 27 000 000
Joseon Dynasty: 8 000 000
Lusang: 6 500 000
Siam (Ayutthaya): 4 000 000
Burma: 4 000 000
Khmer: 1 650 000
Oman: 480 000
AFRICA - 90 000 000
Benin Empire: 30 000 000
Morocco: 2 200 000
Tunisia: 1 500 000
Algeria: 1 400 000
Portuguese Cape: 600 000
WORLD ESTIMATE - ~750 000 000
Hopefully this will make it easier to gauge the relative strength of some countries.
Special Chapter
Countries by Population in 1750
Ottoman Empire: 32 000 000
- Anatolia: 8 500 000
- Balkan Territories: 4 000 000
- Egypt: 3 500 000
- Ottoman Persia: 5 000 000
- (and others)
Republic of France: 25 000 000
Empire of Lithuania: 18 300 000
- Lithuania Propria (including Prussia, Livonia and Estonia): 3 000 000
- Russia: 8 500 000
- Ruthenia: 6 000 000
- Circassia: 450 000
- Crimea: 350 000
Kingdom of Britannia: 12 500 000
- England: 7 450 000
- Ireland: 3 050 000
- Scotland: 2 000 000
Holy Roman Empire: 12 200 000
- Austria: 1 700 000
- Bavaria: 1 500 000
- Wurttemberg: 1 000 000
- Swiss Cantons: 850 000
- Saxony: 750 000
Kingdom of Spain: 8 500 000
Kingdom of the Union of Three Crowns (Visegrad): 8 600 000
- Kingdom of Poland: 3 500 000
- Kingdom of Hungary: 3 000 000
- Kingdom of Bohemia: 2 100 000
North German Communion: 5 500 000
Kingdom of Naples: 4 000 000
Russian State (Volga Russia): 4 000 000
Free State of the Netherlands: 2 400 000
Papal State: 2 000 000
Kingdom of Portugal: 1 850 000
Most Serene Republic of Venice: 1 750 000
Grand Duchy of Savoy: 1 700 000
Kingdom of Sweden: 1 500 000
Grand Duchy of Tuscany: 1 000 000
Denmark: 800 000
Principality of Moldavia: 250 000
VESPUCIA (NORTH AND SOUTH) - 45 000 000
Inca Empire: 20 000 000
Empire of Mejico: 3 500 000
Portuguese Manuela: 2 000 000
Spanish New World: 1 950 000
- Luisiana: 650 000
- New Granada (Central Vespucia): 500 000
- Spanish Caribbean: 800 000
New Netherland: 1 800 000
New France: 850 000
New Sweden: 200 000
Virginia (British): 150 000
ASIA - 495 000 000
Shun Dynasty: 250 000 000
Mughal Empire: 160 000 000
Toyotami Shogunate: 27 000 000
Joseon Dynasty: 8 000 000
Lusang: 6 500 000
Siam (Ayutthaya): 4 000 000
Burma: 4 000 000
Khmer: 1 650 000
Oman: 480 000
AFRICA - 90 000 000
Benin Empire: 30 000 000
Morocco: 2 200 000
Tunisia: 1 500 000
Algeria: 1 400 000
Portuguese Cape: 600 000
WORLD ESTIMATE - ~750 000 000
Hopefully this will make it easier to gauge the relative strength of some countries.
Volga Russia has grown pretty populous! What % of their population is Slavic, as opposed to Steppe Nomad?
Benin and the Tawantinsuyu have quite the population! They are sure to be regional powers at least in the future, if they can keep up technologically!
The Ottoman populations don't quite seem to add up, though...
Benin and the Tawantinsuyu have quite the population! They are sure to be regional powers at least in the future, if they can keep up technologically!
The Ottoman populations don't quite seem to add up, though...
Volga Russia is supported by a constant stream of refugees from Lithuania, as well as extremely fertile soil. Russian-Tatar split is roughly 50-50.
Well, Tawantinsuyu had a population of 10 million in the 16th century, so without Spanish conquests that large population stayed. Not sure on Benin myself, though, I tried to keep the population somewhat reasonable for West Africa, but I fear that it might be too much.
Not all Ottoman provinces are listed there, only the most populous ones.
It's population is actually slightly smaller than that of OTL Qing China in this period.
I'll admit, I haven't thought much about the situation in Italy. It doesn't appear much in the TL (although perhaps it doesn't appear much because I haven't developed it), so there's not much I can say. But basically, after the Twenty Years' War, Italy remained as a battleground of influence between France and Spain. Naples acquired independence with French support in the beginning of the 18th century. The power of the Papacy has shrunk compared to previous centuries, but they are still mainly aligned with Spain. North Italy is a toss-up between France, the HRE and a few Spanish-supported states.
So will this lead to an earlier and more intensive settlement of the region than OTL.
Chapter 49: The First Domino Falls
Part 49: The First Domino Falls (1750-1763)
Not in Lithuania, however. What was happening there, though? Well, for one, this eastern empire now had a new overlord - Grand Hetman Augustas Velniukas, successor to Algimantas Songaila, and he was approved by the dying Emperor Algirdas III in January of 1751. Velniukas was already 65 years old at the time of his inaugural, and he achieved this position by spending quite a lot of money on bribes - he could afford it, of course, being a wealthy magnate from Samogitia and all. He was a conservative, old and not very energetic man, and his rule was one of calmth and growth. However, he was a great opponent of Abolitionism and an old guard within the military, so he irritated the liberal and republican forces within the country. The Russians didn't like him much, either, much like they disliked any Hetman - but who would ever listen to their opinion?
Like a yin-yang to the new Grand Hetman was the new Emperor. Emperor Algirdas III died on June of 1753 after a long period of illness, dying while clutching to his heart. It is not known what was the disease that killed the 50-ish year old Emperor, but modern historians suspect a heart disease of some sorts, or maybe just an unlucky heart attack. Whatever may have been the cause for his death, he was replaced by his eldest son, Jonas II, a true man of the Enlightenment. Educated in the University of Paris and acquainted with the philosophy at the time, he was liberal, opposed to the Hetmanate, to absolutism and to serfdom, he was very well liked by the moderate and liberal forces within the country, and, while he didn't show it, he secretly harbored hopes to one day remove the Hetman from power and restore the position of power of the Emperor. Since the coup led by Chodkevičius, the monarchy held a ceremonial position at best, saved from complete removal thanks to the authority that the Emperor, as the head of the Lithuanian Orthodox Church, was to the common people of the empire. The keys to power were held by the Hetman, who ruled as a dictator, as well as his clique, the Council of Lords, in a weird oligarchical military dictatorship - and Jonas II hoped to one day change that.
The beginning of the second half of the 18th century seemed to be calm, what with the tensions between France and the HRE decreasing and such, but a crisis shook Lithuanian society in 1760. And it, unsurprisingly, was tied to Russia. With the spread of the Enlightenment, a number of individuals across the region were hoping that the seed has been sown for a new, more successful Russian rebellion, hopefully with foreign support. Many of the Russian intellecuals who were considering such a revolution, like Ivan and Vladimir Kozlovs, had been forced to emigrate, settling in Western Europe and finding brothers in arms in the name of German Enlightenment thinkers, who were also wishing for their state's independence. However, in 1760, Lithuanian officers revealed a Russian-German plot to incite a rebellion in Tver, and numerous people affiliated were captured and arrested. The rebellion was prevented, but a worrying thought reached the minds of the Lithuanian government - this Enlightenment thing, and especially the Germans, are dangerous! France was not the only country worried about the things developing in Germany anymore...
Vilnius in the 18th century
Another worrisome event happened in China in 1758. During the last years of the Ming dynasty, the Chinese emperors reluctantly allowed the Portuguese to set up a few trade ports on the massive empire's coast, most notably in Hainan and in Macao. After the East Asian War, those ports were taken over by the Dutch, but the relations between the Europeans and the Chinese mostly remained the same, even after the Ming were replaced by the Shun dynasty. However, the new Emperor of China, Chuangzhi, was not happy with the situation in the European trade ports - used to the protection that the Emperor gave them, the Europeans began acting like little kings in their ports, freely exploiting the local Chinese populace and raising costs of their goods while purchasing Chinese tea, porcelain and silk at extremely low prices. The Dutch also learned of the Shun efforts to study European technology, and thus began withholding their secrets. After a number of diplomatic mishaps, Chuangzhi arrived to the final solution - kicking out the Western devils from the Chinese mainland and Hainan. Knowing that the numbers are not on their side, the Netherlanders retreated without firing a shot, and their ports were seized. A devastating blow to Dutch trade in East Asia.
Nothing good was going on on the other side of the world, either. The Benin Empire, forged through guns, cannons and steel in the beginning of the 18th century, was not meant to last. The nation covered a vast territory, and the bureaucracy of the originally small nation was overloaded. Trying to tie dozens of cultures together into a single state proved to be impossible, and after the Oba died in 1755, a succession war escalated into the complete collapse of Africa's short-lived gunpowder empire. It may have fallen quickly, but it's impact on the development of West Africa is insurmountable - Benin brought Western weaponry, bureaucracy and a more centralized style of rule to the region, and even though it collapsed into splinter states, they all retained the legacy of the Empire, seeing it as a pinnacle of the region's power.
However, while all of that was important, the true star of the show was the events in North Vespucia. More specifically - New Netherland. Dutch colonial rule over the region proved to be harder and harder to bear for the colonists of the region. It's hard to say which exact event led to it's end, but a string of bad decisions and often just determined fate was responsible. As time went on, more and more countries switched to a mercantilistic trade system, prioritizing exports and fighting imports with high tariffs, and such a situation was deadly to the Netherlands, which lived and breathed with world trade. The eviction from China also played a huge part, and as the Netherlands moved closer to bankruptcy, the more they taxed New Netherland, seeing it as their only choice for survival. And it's not like the Netherlands didn't attempt to switch to domestic production - but how do you do that when you're so lacking in money? Hell, how do you do that at all? The more taxes on New Netherland grew, the more they resented Dutch rule. It was the first half of the 18th century when a separate "Vespucian Dutch" identity formed, and now it had to be put into the test.
The final straw came with Wilhelm van Lieber, a Dutch tax collector who arrived to New Amsterdam on June of 1760, informing the New Netherland Assembly of a recently passed colonial tariff on furs - and the people of New Amsterdam responded by tarring and feathering the poor man, then sending him back to the ship to go back to Europe. This was the signal for the beginning of the Vespucian Independence War. Militias began to form across the country, in the same style as the French leveé during the Flammantian Wars and Russian opolcheniye during the Great Russian Rebellion. The metropoly only held 2500 men in the colony at that time, and even that small number was widely spread out across the country, so the first stages of the conflict were a resounding success. The New Netherland Assembly, previously merely a colonial parliament organized for resolving local matters, now changed it's name to the Vespucian Assembly, declaring itself to be the supreme government of what used to be Dutch Vespucia.
Problems came when the metropoly finally assembled a force for putting down the upstart colonists, and the first shipment of over 3000 soldiers arrived in New Rotterdam, in the north of the country, in spring of 1761. By summer, over 10 000 Dutch soldiers were stationed in the Vespucias, and despite heavy resistance, they managed to secure the north of the country, barely failing to take New Amsterdam after a siege, Not all Vespucians wanted to rebel from the Netherlands, either - many were opposed to such a radical step, and others were just undecided. A capable leader finally arose among the previously disorganized Vespucians - Herbert der Pols, previously a minor commander in the Dutch colonial army, now the supreme commander of the Vespucian militia, and in the Battle of Nordehamm, he broke the loyalist lines and secured a major victory in the conflict, pushing the metropoly forces back to the outskirts of New Rotterdam by the beginning of 1762.
Neither side was able to continue the war any further, however. The Netherlands was nearing bankruptcy, and it could not maintain a standing army for long, and the Vespucians were blockaded at sea, ran low on ammunition and supplies, and the northern part of their country had been greatly damaged by the conflict. France, ruled by the Blue Party, was still neutral, but elections were drawing near, and the frontrunner Red Party candidate Francois Doriot was openly advocating for supporting the Netherlands - it is not known whether this fact had any effect on pressuring the combatants, however. Negotiations between the Vespucian Assembly and the Netherlands finally began, and in a historic agreement, the New Rotterdam Compromise of 1762, the Netherlands accepted the independence of New Netherland, although with a vague addition "in eternal ties with the Free State of the Netherlands". In practice, this equated to the two countries aligning together on foreign policy and maintaining a free trade agreement between them, and the Vespucians nominally accepting Dutch overlordship in some occasions.
While not completely independent yet, the Vespucia Free State was born. VFS became the first country in the world to begin applying the ideas of the Enlightenment within it's political system, and the Vespucian Assembly was ready to enact such radical, crazy ideas as universal suffrage for all males, abolishing the three estates and equalizing their rights, and the separation of powers into the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. Vespucia had always been a nation of immigrants and refugees, united for a seek for freedom and a new life, and while some parts of Europe were embracing absolutism or "reactionary" democracy, it's lawmakers set their sights on the values of equality and liberty.
One interesting fact to note - many volunteers from Europe participated in the Vespucian Independence War, mostly on the side of the colonists, and they formed what is now known as the "Vespucian Liberty Legion", a nod to the Jean de Foix's Liberty Legion during the Flammantian Wars. Many of them were Germans, though there were many French, Spanish, Italian, Czech, Polish and even some Lithuanian volunteers. The leader of the legion was Albrecht Reiter, and one of the many officers in the Legion was an interesting, fiery, but bright German man from Bavaria, noted by General Reiter as "a wayward, but competent boy, with a burning heart", named Maximillian Schwarzburg...
While all of this was happening, Grand Hetman Augustas Velniukas's health was rapidly weakening. The general was almost 80 years old by then, and on October of 1762, not long after hearing the news of the establishment of the VFS, the dictator of Lithuania died, to the surprise of none. Velniukas's rule was not marked by any superb achievements nor great successes, but it did not have to be. The biggest headache he caused for future generations was for Lithuanian high school students in the 21st century, who keep forgetting him, because he was in between two truly great and memorable leaders... After Velniukas's death, the Council of Lords appointed Martynas Pacas as the next Grand Hetman of Lithuania.
Unlike his predecessors, Pacas was only 38 years old, energetic and willing to seek for change. But what challenge awaits him in this changing world?