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Party Fifty-Seven: Out of Order Comes Chaos
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Party Fifty-Seven: Out of Order Comes Chaos
Sambre Stalemate and Barcelona Blues:
After the success of the Battle of the Sambre, France gained comparatively little ground on the eastern side of the Belgian front during the following year. While France did continue to extend its hold across the Sambre to Charleroi, the Coalition was able to move the majority of the front back to the river. In July and August, a large British offensive in the center line of the front recaptured Mons, but failed to reach the border between Belgium and France. Further west along the front, France worked most of the year to take Lille from the Coalition. France finally did manage to secure Lille in October after the British and Belgian garrison was sufficiently weakened by the redirection of Coalition forces toward the Mons offensive.
Meanwhile, the French continued to gain more and more ground in Spain as the Spanish forces were drawn further back into Spain. The Basque front was stagnant for much of the year with France making minimal gains only to secure Estella from a wide Spanish attack. However, the Spanish armies in Catalonia had to endure more retreats as France reached Sabadell in June and Badalona in August. A large network of trenches and artillery pieces were set up near Badalona on the coast up through the hills north of Barcelona to Montcada, where the Ripoll and Besos rivers met and cut a flat plain through the hills to the coast. In early September, a Spanish and British naval contingent was able to get the French navy away from Barcelona, but the French armies still bore down on the defenses. A difficult, slow campaign ensued, much like the previous battle near Girona, and lasted for months as France began to surround the city.
The Final Days:
Up until now, the Habsburg rule over the Austrian Empire had been on the verge of complete collapse in the face of the German and Italian invasions and the rebellions in the south and east. In 1869, the final straw would break in Austria and the Habsburg dynasty would come to a violent, crashing end. In March, the Italian armies under Cialdini captured Venice, Treviso, and Udine, and began to force the Austrian armies into the Alps. Bavarian armies took several Alpine towns and turned their eyes east, marching through Linz in June. Steffen Osisek started to march his armies through the Moravian Plateau toward Vienna in April. The three countries were converging upon Vienna, even when the Habsburgs had already fled the city.
However, in July, a mass uprising in Hungary against Habsburg rule brought an abrupt and somewhat sensible end to the war. Emperor Franz Karl, with gunshots outside of the compound the Royal Family was staying at in Budapest[1], wrote a letter of surrender to Berlin. Within this letter Franz Karl requested two things. First, that the negotiation of peace terms be begun as quickly as possible so that the armies could work together to quell the rebellions that were growing every day. And second, the Habsburg royal family requested asylum in Bavaria on the basis that Franz Karl's wife, Archduchess Sophie, was the aunt of King Maximilian II of Bavaria. These terms were granted by the victorious powers, but only guaranteed for the duration of negotiations, and the Habsburg Royal Family was sped to Berlin on a train.
Emperor Franz Karl and his family arrived in Berlin on July 22nd, 1869 and met with the Prussian, Bavarian, and Italian leaders in the nearby town of Cottbus. The next three months were spent in negotiations over concessions in a territory that one side had increasingly little rule over. In November, the final minutiae of the proceedings had been finished and the Treaty of Cottbus was signed by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and King William I of Prussia, King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and President Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italy on the side of the victors, and Emperor Franz Karl and Archduke Maximilian[2] of Austria on the side of the defeated. The terms of the Treaty of Cottbus included the abolition of the German Confederation with Prussia formally acknowledged as the leader of the German states, the cession of Bohemia to Prussia, the cession of much of Tirol and the city of Salzburg to Bavaria, and the cession of Lombardy and Venetia to Italy. However, formal peace did not bring an end to the uprisings in Austria and the former Habsburg realms were now fast becoming a land of lawlessness and anarchy.
[1] The story of writing the message amid gunshots outside is apocryphal, mind you.
[2] Eldest son of Franz Karl; also known in OTL as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
Party Fifty-Seven: Out of Order Comes Chaos
Sambre Stalemate and Barcelona Blues:
After the success of the Battle of the Sambre, France gained comparatively little ground on the eastern side of the Belgian front during the following year. While France did continue to extend its hold across the Sambre to Charleroi, the Coalition was able to move the majority of the front back to the river. In July and August, a large British offensive in the center line of the front recaptured Mons, but failed to reach the border between Belgium and France. Further west along the front, France worked most of the year to take Lille from the Coalition. France finally did manage to secure Lille in October after the British and Belgian garrison was sufficiently weakened by the redirection of Coalition forces toward the Mons offensive.
Meanwhile, the French continued to gain more and more ground in Spain as the Spanish forces were drawn further back into Spain. The Basque front was stagnant for much of the year with France making minimal gains only to secure Estella from a wide Spanish attack. However, the Spanish armies in Catalonia had to endure more retreats as France reached Sabadell in June and Badalona in August. A large network of trenches and artillery pieces were set up near Badalona on the coast up through the hills north of Barcelona to Montcada, where the Ripoll and Besos rivers met and cut a flat plain through the hills to the coast. In early September, a Spanish and British naval contingent was able to get the French navy away from Barcelona, but the French armies still bore down on the defenses. A difficult, slow campaign ensued, much like the previous battle near Girona, and lasted for months as France began to surround the city.
The Final Days:
Up until now, the Habsburg rule over the Austrian Empire had been on the verge of complete collapse in the face of the German and Italian invasions and the rebellions in the south and east. In 1869, the final straw would break in Austria and the Habsburg dynasty would come to a violent, crashing end. In March, the Italian armies under Cialdini captured Venice, Treviso, and Udine, and began to force the Austrian armies into the Alps. Bavarian armies took several Alpine towns and turned their eyes east, marching through Linz in June. Steffen Osisek started to march his armies through the Moravian Plateau toward Vienna in April. The three countries were converging upon Vienna, even when the Habsburgs had already fled the city.
However, in July, a mass uprising in Hungary against Habsburg rule brought an abrupt and somewhat sensible end to the war. Emperor Franz Karl, with gunshots outside of the compound the Royal Family was staying at in Budapest[1], wrote a letter of surrender to Berlin. Within this letter Franz Karl requested two things. First, that the negotiation of peace terms be begun as quickly as possible so that the armies could work together to quell the rebellions that were growing every day. And second, the Habsburg royal family requested asylum in Bavaria on the basis that Franz Karl's wife, Archduchess Sophie, was the aunt of King Maximilian II of Bavaria. These terms were granted by the victorious powers, but only guaranteed for the duration of negotiations, and the Habsburg Royal Family was sped to Berlin on a train.
Emperor Franz Karl and his family arrived in Berlin on July 22nd, 1869 and met with the Prussian, Bavarian, and Italian leaders in the nearby town of Cottbus. The next three months were spent in negotiations over concessions in a territory that one side had increasingly little rule over. In November, the final minutiae of the proceedings had been finished and the Treaty of Cottbus was signed by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck and King William I of Prussia, King Maximilian II of Bavaria, and President Giuseppe Garibaldi of Italy on the side of the victors, and Emperor Franz Karl and Archduke Maximilian[2] of Austria on the side of the defeated. The terms of the Treaty of Cottbus included the abolition of the German Confederation with Prussia formally acknowledged as the leader of the German states, the cession of Bohemia to Prussia, the cession of much of Tirol and the city of Salzburg to Bavaria, and the cession of Lombardy and Venetia to Italy. However, formal peace did not bring an end to the uprisings in Austria and the former Habsburg realms were now fast becoming a land of lawlessness and anarchy.
[1] The story of writing the message amid gunshots outside is apocryphal, mind you.
[2] Eldest son of Franz Karl; also known in OTL as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico
- wilcoxchar
- Word Count: 790