Reader's Note: If one considers the ultimata which had been issued the year before, then it could conceivably be called the Eleven Years' War. Though I will treat the ultimata of 1764 as the beginning of the war, I will only consider the opening military offensives to be the true start, hence the title of the war will be the Ten Years' War. This war will have two blends: The American War of Independence and the Maracaibo War For Independence both of which will start in 1770 and end in 1779.
WAR!
The war, which would in future be called the Ten Years' War began with the sudden offensives opened simultaneously and on separate fronts, by the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania and the Russian Empire. King-Grand Duke Michel Fryderyk appointed the trio of Polish military officers to serve as commanders in the three main Polish theaters of Carpathia, Gotland and Smolenski-Livonia: Tadeusz Kosciuszko (a recent graduate from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, where he was sponsored by the Czartoryskis)*, Casimir Pulaski, brigadier general and later founder of the American cavalry, and Michael Kovats de Fabriczy a veteran of both the Hapsburg and Prussian military who now lent his talent to the Commonwealth. Kovats was placed in charge of the Gotland Front, Pulaski would command the Carpathia Front**, and Kosciuszko would command the Smolensk-Livonia Front. On Christmas Day 1764, the Commonwealth navy switched from simply supplying the insurgents to now defending transport ships which would carry a force of 23,000 under Kovats' command. New Year's Day 1765 without announcinga state of war, Poland-Lithuania began the Ten Years' War with their offensive. News arrived at the courts of Copenhagen and Berlin four days later of the Polish offensive. Frederick II grabbed the opportunity thus presented and marched his army of 18,000 into Swedish Pomerania while Denmark-Norway began their offensives in Scania and Trondelag. Kovats' army landed on the southern shore of Gotland and with the assistance of the pro-Polish insurgents (who had at the same time began their rising against the Swedish garrison) marched north to face a Swedish garrison force of 17,000 (the original garrison of 20,000 had been reduced by guerilla raids, cold, and disease). In 6 hours of brutal fighting which at one point nearly swung in favor of the Swedes, the Poles inflicted a crushing defeat. Visby was soon after (5 January) placed under siege as additional troops and artillery were brought in from Klajpeda
The Danes fared somewhat worse than their Polish ally. Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, governor of the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, led a force of 30,000 using pontoons lashed together tightly from Zealand to Scania. They laid siege to Lund in the Scanian province, but faced extreme cold and disease which reduced their numbers. On 7 January a Swedish relief force from Stockholm under the personal command of King Adolf Frederick*** numbering only 24,000 marched into Scania and on the 8th both armies fought an inconclusive 8-hour battle. The battle is considered inconclusive because, despite the high casualties on both sides, neither side gave ground and the Siege of Lund continued with fresh Danish troops arriving four days after the battle. At the Trondelag theater, a mostly Norwegian army of 16,000 with 8,000 Danish and 300 artillery from the Duchy of Oldenburg advanced into Swedish Jamtland and laid siege to Ostersund (8 January). As at Lund, disease and extreme cold reduced the numbers but after a siege lasting 9 days, the city surrendered. Two days later other villages and towns in Jamtland submitted to the Danes, giving them control of a territory they had not held since 1645 and offered them an almost direct path from the west to Stokholm. At the request of the aging King Frederick V, detachments of Norwegian infantry and Oldenburg artillery were directed south to assist in the ongoing siege in Lund. News then arrived of both the Prussian conquest of Swedish Pomerania and the imminent attack on the Danish island of Bornholm by a Swedish force of 16,000.
Despite their initial losses in Gotland and Jamtland, and the recent conquest of Swedish Pomerania by Frederick II of Prussia, the Swedish military command now planned a campaign to occupy the Danish island of Bornholm. It was believed that Prussian supplies were giving the Danes besieging Lund an advantage and by thus cutting them off would make the relief of the city possible. There was also the desire to reclaim their portion of Pomerania and even drive to Berlin and force Frederick II to capitulate. A force of 19,000 including Finnish troops were raised and supplemented by units which survived the Battle of Lund and a fleet gathered off the coast near Kalmar. Taking advantage of the absence of the Prussian fleet and Poland's preoccupation with Gotland, they sailed south and took the island without a struggle on 20 January. They rapidly began to fortify the island, knowing that both Denmark and Prussia would see the seizure of Bornholm as a direct threat and make a join attempt to retake the island.
At the same time that Poland-Lithuania launched their offensive in Gotland and Prussia began its conquest of Swedish Pomerania, three Russian armies under the overall command of Alexei Orlov advanced into Crimea. One division led by Cossack Hetman Yemelyan Pugachev**** advanced on Azov, which was being besieged by a Tarter-Ottoman force led by the Khan of the Crimea Selim III Ghiray. In the Battle of Azov (which took place two days after the Battle of Visby), Ghiray drove Pugachev to Taganrog, where he was defeated again by the Ottoman Grand Vizier Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha****.* Ghiray and Muhsinzade then invested the fortress of Azov for three months before it capitulated (despite Muhsinzade being recalled to form another army when Russian forces descended on Moldavia just as the spring thaw began). An Ottoman flotilla under the command of Admiral Ebubekir Pasha closed the Strait of Kerch trapping a Russian fleet within the Sea of Azov and for the time being denying them the Black Sea. In the Balkan theater, the Beylerbey of Bulgaria led his 11,000 troops northwest into Serbia to meet an army of 13,000 Hungarians under the command of Andras Hadik, culminating in the Battle of Nis (3 April). The Hungarians had occupied the high ground, giving them advantage as the Turkish and Bulgarian infantry tried to enter and fortify the city. Cannon fire obliterated most of the Bulgarian regiments before Albanian reinforcements could arrive to drive the Hungarian artillery from the high ground at great cost (9,000 killed). The Turks rallied outside the city walls and sent the Hungarians retreating back across the frontier. Hadik was given orders to take his troops to Dalmatia as, two days after his defeat at Nis, Austria launched its offensive under the command of Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. 29,000 troops with 11,000 cavalry (including the 9,000 Polish hussars sent by Michel Fryderyk) and 6,000 artillery. Advancing down the Dalmatian coast during the early summer rainy season, Prince Joseph captured Zadar (15 May) and Split (18 May) in rapid succession before coming up against Hadik's reorganized army of 16,000 supplemented with 7,000 Cossack horse from Russia under the command of Pugachev. They clashed at the Battle of Ston on 21 May amid a summer storm which made bringing the cannons up to position difficult for both sides. Ultimately, the Polish hussars decided the outcome of the battle when they managed to catch a group of artillery trying to advance up an incline isolated and scattered the gunners, seizing the cannon as trophies. The loss of nearly all the Hungarian artillery left Hadik's army with nothing to prevent the hussars from charging into the ranks of the infantry scattering many and slaughtering a few, Pugachev fled with the surviving Cossacks, escaping into Moldavia. Unfortunately for Prince Joseph, the heavy rains now delayed the arrival of provisions by slowing down the carts and wagons. Thus he decided to wait until the supply wagons could reach his army before he proceeded to his final objective: Ragusa.
General von Duan marched his 28,000 strong army north to Moravia, then northwest into Silesia, bypassing the Bohemian massif to engage the Prussians. Count von Dohna met him with a force of 23,000 at Breslau (28 May). Frederick II, coming off the conquest of Swedish Pomerania, forced-marched his men south to link up with von Dohna at a crucial point in the battle. Despite the Prussian victory, both sides sustained high csualties with the Austrians losing 6,700 killed and 2,800 captured and Prussia suffering 8,500 killed and 3,300 captured. Frederick withdrew with the bulk of his surviving army to Brandenburg while von Dohna pursued the retreating Austrians back into Moravia. It was finally on 3 June that Prince Joseph made his advance on Ragusa, putting it under siege while garrisons controllled the rest of Dalmatia.
Already by midsummer, the major powers of Central and Eastern Europe had achieved their primary objectives or were close to doing so. But as the western, maritime and colonial nations of Europe began to fight, the web of alliances would tighten to such a degree that nine more years would need to pass in blood and destruction before Europe could again settle down. Even the change of monarchs in France, Austria, Spain, Saxony, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire would do little to slow the tide of war.
* Kosciuszko had been sponsored by the Czartoryski family IOTL. For this timeline it could be speculated that the king-grand duke, himself of the Czartoryski family, personally chose him to be one of three generals in the Commonwealth army.
** Pulaski had initially been assigned to the Memel-Livonia front, but the threat of the Hungarians prompted his reassignment to the Carpathian frotier with Hungary, enabling the Poles to block all the passes into the Commonwealth and forcing the Hungarians into a more narrow path to attack Austria
*** King Adolf Frederick of Sweden actually detested military conflict IOTL. He had attempted to bind Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, Prussia, Russia and Britain in an Alliance of the North
**** IOTL, Pugachev attempted a revolt against Catherine II but after a short engagement was captured and executed. ITTL, his knowledge of the terrain of the Crimea and Ukraine would be of benefit to the Russians even despite the initial losses to the Tartars and Turks.
***** Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha was on his first term as Grand Vizier IOTL at roughly the same time as ITTL.
Source:
Wikipedia
WAR!
The war, which would in future be called the Ten Years' War began with the sudden offensives opened simultaneously and on separate fronts, by the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania and the Russian Empire. King-Grand Duke Michel Fryderyk appointed the trio of Polish military officers to serve as commanders in the three main Polish theaters of Carpathia, Gotland and Smolenski-Livonia: Tadeusz Kosciuszko (a recent graduate from the Corps of Cadets in Warsaw, where he was sponsored by the Czartoryskis)*, Casimir Pulaski, brigadier general and later founder of the American cavalry, and Michael Kovats de Fabriczy a veteran of both the Hapsburg and Prussian military who now lent his talent to the Commonwealth. Kovats was placed in charge of the Gotland Front, Pulaski would command the Carpathia Front**, and Kosciuszko would command the Smolensk-Livonia Front. On Christmas Day 1764, the Commonwealth navy switched from simply supplying the insurgents to now defending transport ships which would carry a force of 23,000 under Kovats' command. New Year's Day 1765 without announcinga state of war, Poland-Lithuania began the Ten Years' War with their offensive. News arrived at the courts of Copenhagen and Berlin four days later of the Polish offensive. Frederick II grabbed the opportunity thus presented and marched his army of 18,000 into Swedish Pomerania while Denmark-Norway began their offensives in Scania and Trondelag. Kovats' army landed on the southern shore of Gotland and with the assistance of the pro-Polish insurgents (who had at the same time began their rising against the Swedish garrison) marched north to face a Swedish garrison force of 17,000 (the original garrison of 20,000 had been reduced by guerilla raids, cold, and disease). In 6 hours of brutal fighting which at one point nearly swung in favor of the Swedes, the Poles inflicted a crushing defeat. Visby was soon after (5 January) placed under siege as additional troops and artillery were brought in from Klajpeda
The Danes fared somewhat worse than their Polish ally. Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, governor of the duchy of Schleswig-Holstein, led a force of 30,000 using pontoons lashed together tightly from Zealand to Scania. They laid siege to Lund in the Scanian province, but faced extreme cold and disease which reduced their numbers. On 7 January a Swedish relief force from Stockholm under the personal command of King Adolf Frederick*** numbering only 24,000 marched into Scania and on the 8th both armies fought an inconclusive 8-hour battle. The battle is considered inconclusive because, despite the high casualties on both sides, neither side gave ground and the Siege of Lund continued with fresh Danish troops arriving four days after the battle. At the Trondelag theater, a mostly Norwegian army of 16,000 with 8,000 Danish and 300 artillery from the Duchy of Oldenburg advanced into Swedish Jamtland and laid siege to Ostersund (8 January). As at Lund, disease and extreme cold reduced the numbers but after a siege lasting 9 days, the city surrendered. Two days later other villages and towns in Jamtland submitted to the Danes, giving them control of a territory they had not held since 1645 and offered them an almost direct path from the west to Stokholm. At the request of the aging King Frederick V, detachments of Norwegian infantry and Oldenburg artillery were directed south to assist in the ongoing siege in Lund. News then arrived of both the Prussian conquest of Swedish Pomerania and the imminent attack on the Danish island of Bornholm by a Swedish force of 16,000.
Despite their initial losses in Gotland and Jamtland, and the recent conquest of Swedish Pomerania by Frederick II of Prussia, the Swedish military command now planned a campaign to occupy the Danish island of Bornholm. It was believed that Prussian supplies were giving the Danes besieging Lund an advantage and by thus cutting them off would make the relief of the city possible. There was also the desire to reclaim their portion of Pomerania and even drive to Berlin and force Frederick II to capitulate. A force of 19,000 including Finnish troops were raised and supplemented by units which survived the Battle of Lund and a fleet gathered off the coast near Kalmar. Taking advantage of the absence of the Prussian fleet and Poland's preoccupation with Gotland, they sailed south and took the island without a struggle on 20 January. They rapidly began to fortify the island, knowing that both Denmark and Prussia would see the seizure of Bornholm as a direct threat and make a join attempt to retake the island.
At the same time that Poland-Lithuania launched their offensive in Gotland and Prussia began its conquest of Swedish Pomerania, three Russian armies under the overall command of Alexei Orlov advanced into Crimea. One division led by Cossack Hetman Yemelyan Pugachev**** advanced on Azov, which was being besieged by a Tarter-Ottoman force led by the Khan of the Crimea Selim III Ghiray. In the Battle of Azov (which took place two days after the Battle of Visby), Ghiray drove Pugachev to Taganrog, where he was defeated again by the Ottoman Grand Vizier Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha****.* Ghiray and Muhsinzade then invested the fortress of Azov for three months before it capitulated (despite Muhsinzade being recalled to form another army when Russian forces descended on Moldavia just as the spring thaw began). An Ottoman flotilla under the command of Admiral Ebubekir Pasha closed the Strait of Kerch trapping a Russian fleet within the Sea of Azov and for the time being denying them the Black Sea. In the Balkan theater, the Beylerbey of Bulgaria led his 11,000 troops northwest into Serbia to meet an army of 13,000 Hungarians under the command of Andras Hadik, culminating in the Battle of Nis (3 April). The Hungarians had occupied the high ground, giving them advantage as the Turkish and Bulgarian infantry tried to enter and fortify the city. Cannon fire obliterated most of the Bulgarian regiments before Albanian reinforcements could arrive to drive the Hungarian artillery from the high ground at great cost (9,000 killed). The Turks rallied outside the city walls and sent the Hungarians retreating back across the frontier. Hadik was given orders to take his troops to Dalmatia as, two days after his defeat at Nis, Austria launched its offensive under the command of Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen. 29,000 troops with 11,000 cavalry (including the 9,000 Polish hussars sent by Michel Fryderyk) and 6,000 artillery. Advancing down the Dalmatian coast during the early summer rainy season, Prince Joseph captured Zadar (15 May) and Split (18 May) in rapid succession before coming up against Hadik's reorganized army of 16,000 supplemented with 7,000 Cossack horse from Russia under the command of Pugachev. They clashed at the Battle of Ston on 21 May amid a summer storm which made bringing the cannons up to position difficult for both sides. Ultimately, the Polish hussars decided the outcome of the battle when they managed to catch a group of artillery trying to advance up an incline isolated and scattered the gunners, seizing the cannon as trophies. The loss of nearly all the Hungarian artillery left Hadik's army with nothing to prevent the hussars from charging into the ranks of the infantry scattering many and slaughtering a few, Pugachev fled with the surviving Cossacks, escaping into Moldavia. Unfortunately for Prince Joseph, the heavy rains now delayed the arrival of provisions by slowing down the carts and wagons. Thus he decided to wait until the supply wagons could reach his army before he proceeded to his final objective: Ragusa.
General von Duan marched his 28,000 strong army north to Moravia, then northwest into Silesia, bypassing the Bohemian massif to engage the Prussians. Count von Dohna met him with a force of 23,000 at Breslau (28 May). Frederick II, coming off the conquest of Swedish Pomerania, forced-marched his men south to link up with von Dohna at a crucial point in the battle. Despite the Prussian victory, both sides sustained high csualties with the Austrians losing 6,700 killed and 2,800 captured and Prussia suffering 8,500 killed and 3,300 captured. Frederick withdrew with the bulk of his surviving army to Brandenburg while von Dohna pursued the retreating Austrians back into Moravia. It was finally on 3 June that Prince Joseph made his advance on Ragusa, putting it under siege while garrisons controllled the rest of Dalmatia.
Already by midsummer, the major powers of Central and Eastern Europe had achieved their primary objectives or were close to doing so. But as the western, maritime and colonial nations of Europe began to fight, the web of alliances would tighten to such a degree that nine more years would need to pass in blood and destruction before Europe could again settle down. Even the change of monarchs in France, Austria, Spain, Saxony, Hungary and the Ottoman Empire would do little to slow the tide of war.
* Kosciuszko had been sponsored by the Czartoryski family IOTL. For this timeline it could be speculated that the king-grand duke, himself of the Czartoryski family, personally chose him to be one of three generals in the Commonwealth army.
** Pulaski had initially been assigned to the Memel-Livonia front, but the threat of the Hungarians prompted his reassignment to the Carpathian frotier with Hungary, enabling the Poles to block all the passes into the Commonwealth and forcing the Hungarians into a more narrow path to attack Austria
*** King Adolf Frederick of Sweden actually detested military conflict IOTL. He had attempted to bind Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, Prussia, Russia and Britain in an Alliance of the North
**** IOTL, Pugachev attempted a revolt against Catherine II but after a short engagement was captured and executed. ITTL, his knowledge of the terrain of the Crimea and Ukraine would be of benefit to the Russians even despite the initial losses to the Tartars and Turks.
***** Muhsinzade Mehmed Pasha was on his first term as Grand Vizier IOTL at roughly the same time as ITTL.
Source:
Wikipedia
Last edited: