East Resurgent: A History of the World 1700-2000

[TapReflex]

"I have resolved never to start an unjust war but never to end a legitimate one except by defeating my enemies."
- Charles XII of Sweden

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opprotunity"
-Seneca


Gerie, Larson. A History of the Modern World, 1700-2000. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New London [1]: Twert Corporation, 2001. Print.

The Great Northern War was an attempt by Russia and her allies to challenge Swedish Supremacy in Northern Europe, The Siege of Narva and the peace of Travendal gave the Swedish reputation of Strong Militarism[2], but there was a crucial point in the War where it seemed the Swedish would be halted and forced back.​

Charles XII, impatiently decided to invade Russia to obtain the Ukraine's grainery. General Adam Lewenhaupt, 130 kilometers away, was cut off by Peter I's Army. Fearful in hostile lands[3] but not afraid of the Russian Army, Lewenhaupt decided to encircle and destroy Peter I's Army in Lesnaya, P-L. The Battle was bloody, and a Russian victory would've spelled doom to Charles XII who was waiting for the reinforcements Lewenhaupt had.​

Instead, the Battle of Lesnaya was an indecisive, pyrrhic stalemate (although many have contested that the Swedish won the battle, which they did).​

Charles XII's forces stopped in the borderlands of the Cossack Hetmanate, and waited for Lewenhaupt's supplies and men.​

In the Spring of 1709, the Swedes continued their invasion of Russia, and in May, they arrived at the Fort of Poltava: quickly besieging the fort, progress was going until Peter I arrived, begining the Battle of Poltava.
After a rather ambiguous battle, with a bloody, almost pyrrhic result, the Swedish won, and forced Peter I's retreat to Moscow. While Scorched Earth Policy weakened Charles XII's army, several decisive sieges and battles later allowed the Swedes upon Moscow, where Peter I surrendered to Swedish forces.​

________________
[1]OTL Portland, Maine
[2]ITTL, several national steretypes are flipped...you'll see
[3] The POD is a more careful Lewenhaupt, who actually heeds Sun tzu's stategies.



Comments, critiques, etc, are vastly appreciated.

 

[Russian Sailor]

This is going to lead to some very huge butterflies. Please continue

 

[thekingsguard]

*looks on with interest*

 

[Dangimill]

Ooh, a Swedenwank. I'll be watching this carefully.

 

[SavoyTruffle]

And Sweden wins the Great Northern War; Russia doesn't replace it as a Great Power and thus 18th century geopolitics will not be the same.

 

[TapReflex]

Ooh, a Swedenwank. I'll be watching this carefully.

Sorry, but you've come to the wrong thread for that...

 

[TapReflex]

The Peace of Karlstad, 4 February, 1710

The Peace of Karlstad brought the official end to the Great Northern War in 1710. Russia was to acknowledge the Cossack Hetmanate was to have independence under ruler Ivan Mazepa. It's approximate borders consisted of everything south of the Northernmost edge of Chornobyl, West of the Don river, until the Dneiper, where the border follows up into Kyiv.
In Return, Peter The Great could keep his port, St. Petersburg on the coastline. Besides the new state in the Western Ukraine and minor Russian port, the treaty kept things status quo antebellum.

Although territorial disputes between Russia and the Cossack Hetmanate were common, no official violence occured until the Germanic Wars, several years after the Treaty of Karlstad.

...

Comments? Is the Independent CH a bit far?

 

[SavoyTruffle]

The Cossacks can retain their independence if guaranteed by the Swedish.

And remember at this point Poland is weakening - so Sweden can replace Russia as its puppetmaster.

 

[Rudi Maxer]

With Seden victorious at Poltava, polish throne belongs to Stanisław Leszczyński, Charles' protege.

 

[Kaurne]

This sounds very interesting, keep going

 

[TapReflex]

Emperor of The East

After the Great Northern Wars, Peter I set out to make more reforms. One that made him an enemy of the Russian Orthodox Church was his age restriction on becoming a monk. To feed his reformed and modernizing army, the youngest a Russian man could become a monk was 50, in other words, after he had served his country in the military.
That military was put to 'good use' in the First Caucasian Crusade (1711). Contrary to popular belief, Peter did not seek to conquer the Circassians, but grab more land close to a coast, where he could build another port. The Circassian lands, close to Tagonrog and providing a much larger coastline, seemed an easy target of Russian forces.
After a request of aide, Ahmed III sent Ottoman troops to help the Circassian leader[1] stave off the Russian onslaught. The Ottomans formed a static defense line along traditional Adyghan territorial borders. The Western Front was pushed over the Belaya River, But successful turned the tide of the Russian Advance in the Battle of Kammennomostskaya. The entirety of the Russian forces pushed into the city, and were surrounded by the Ottoman-Adyghani forces. While the Russian forces fought hard, Adyghani forces crossed the Belaya, and launched a morning assault on the Russians. The Russians surrendered their forces days laer, and a weary army returned home once again defeated. Circassia became an Autonomous Ottoman protectorate.
Peter instead, turned to the East, Newly discovered Siberian coast. And so began the Russian Eastern Colonial Company.


Peter the Great of Russia
...

1. I didn't want to pull a name out of my ass, and i couldn't find much about former Adyghan leaders, so I left it blank

 

[DjBaraca]

Looks cool. I love Swedish Empire and it's struggle with Peter I (another fave of mine). The future looks great for the swedes. My question is how is Peter I 'great' if he is humiliated by both the Swedish and Adyghe?

 

[SavoyTruffle]

Looks cool. I love Swedish Empire and it's struggle with Peter I (another fave of mine). The future looks great for the swedes. My question is how is Peter I 'great' if he is humiliated by both the Swedish and Adyghe?

Even with a defeat against Sweden he still manages to bring Russia up to scratch and make it more competitive. Which means that with both Sweden and Russia powerful geopolitics will be very interesting, especially with Poland...

 

[TapReflex]

Even with a defeat against Sweden he still manages to bring Russia up to scratch and make it more competitive. Which means that with both Sweden and Russia powerful geopolitics will be very interesting, especially with Poland...

Don't forget our little german speaking friends to the West...they will definately start screwing with the East soon...probably after the War of Spanish Succession ends.

I plan on having Russia expand east...and Sweden will try some expansion as well.

 

[TapReflex]

Karlus Rex

Charles XII of Sweden was enjoying his position upon top of the Northern World. Russia, Denmark, and now his new little vassal state, Poland-Lithuania all bowed before him. Both P-L and the Cossack Hetmanate kept Russia at bay on the European front, and the numerous vassal states of the Ottoman Empire kept the Caucaus safe from Russian imperialism.

The Problem Charles faced was the decline of P-L. It wasn't the same emprical kingdom it used to be. After the Great Deluge, P-L's golden Age had ceased, and it was failure after failure for Poland. Poland still had political systems in place that made Poland even more of a backwater than parts of the Holy Roman Empire.

Power was becoming decentralized, and Poland saw corruption on a large scale. Even Charles' ally, Stanisław I Leszczyński, had trouble with the Commonwealth's maintainance.

Charles realized the commonwealth was soon to be destroyed by itself. SO He drafted the First Partition of Poland (1712) this partition was a draft of the planned division of the Commonwealth in case of collapse. The Swedish planned on carving out the best piece of the 'Polish melon': Lithuania and Belarus were to come under Swedish control. Prussia, neither the greatest of allies nor worst of enemies (at the time), was simply to receive the strip of land seperating the Duchy of Prussia from it's constituent parts in the Holy Roman Empire. The Ottomans, an ally of both France and Sweden, would recieve the voivodships of Belz, part of Ruthenia, Podilsky, and Bratslavsky. Poland itself would remain, as a small, swedish controlled rump state next to the Cossack Hetmanate. Russia, and Austria, could receive what little pieces remained.

While the Partition plans were never realized for a while and not carried out verbatim, this Plan for the Partition of Pol-Lit became the basis for the actual thing several decades later.


Charles XII of Sweden, or Karlus Rex


Polish Voivodships

...

I'm churning these out rapidly... Perhaps I should focus on making them bigger in that case...
Comments? Critiques?

 

[Earl_of_Somerset]

In this situation does Courland become a Swedish Vassal?

It would be interesting if Sweden would then try to take over Courlands colonial adventures.

 

[TapReflex]

In this situation does Courland become a Swedish Vassal?

It would be interesting if Sweden would then try to take over Courlands colonial adventures.

Well, uh... we'll see about that.

 

[TapReflex]

Emperor of the East

Part II

The Russian Eastern Colonial Company began when Peter I called upon Vitus Bering to orchestrate an exploration of The Lands West of Kamchatka. The Company was founded for the Sole purpose of claiming and governing the undiscovered lands which Bering might stumble upon. Starting in 1712, the Expedition set out over the Urals into former Sibir lands.

It was rather ambiguous as to whether Russia was connected to the New World, or whether water separated the two bodies. Upon reaching the East Coast of Kamchatka, Bering set off along the coast, keeping within sight of the Shoreline. Upon reaching several large ice flows, he returned back to his staring point, believing his expedition successful. He suspected a large landmass due East, although he did not live long enough to explore on, as he was killed by a Brown bear in Kamchatka, October 7, 1715.


Vitus Bering, Pioneer

Tales of the Lands East made Peter ambitious. He appointed Naval Leader Fyodor Apraskin [1] to head a Second exploratory mission. Apraksin, following in the footsteps of Bering, set out East of Kamchatka, landing on a foreign shore in August of 1717. As this was during the Germanic Wars, Tsar Peter ordered the Expedition not to return until the War was over.

In that time, Apraksin met with Natives, bartered a bit, (Furs for beads and glass trinkets) and named the land Alyeska after the Native Aleut word, alaxsxaq, meaning ‘mainland’. Sailing farther South, Apraskin landed in Nookanel and Penzlenook [2], and Baja California. From there, he refueled and set out into open water across the Pacific. There, he discovered Guvay [3], and claimed it for The Tsar, Emperor of All East. After hopskotching across the Guvhayan Chain, He landed in what he initially believed to be Kamchatka. After encountering the natives, and not able to find any Russian Colonizers, he claimed the Land for Russia. Sailing farther Northwest, Apraksin finally returned to Siberia in 1724, after 8 years away from home.

The ‘East Trek’ as it later became known as, opened the door for Russian Domination of the North Pacific.


Count Theodore Apraxin, of the Russian East Colonialism Company

...

1. W/out the GNW, The Navy is sitting useless. What else is there to do?

2. OTL Vancouver Island and San Francisco, respectively.

3. OTL Hawai'i

So how am I doing?

 

[SavoyTruffle]

So Swedish victory in the Great Northern War leads to Russia taking its energies to the east rather than toward Europe?

 

[TapReflex]

So Swedish victory in the Great Northern War leads to Russia taking its energies to the east rather than toward Europe?

The Way I am hoping to take this is so Russia is interested in both European and Colonial interests, or atleast more invested in Colonialism than OTL.

Peter still keeps an eye out in the West...